The Cross of Christ, the Measure of the World

(St. John Henry Newman - found here)

“. . . It must not be supposed, because the doctrine of the Cross makes us sad, that therefore the Gospel is a sad religion. The Psalmist says, ‘Those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy’ (Ps 126:5); and our Lord says, those who mourn ‘shall be comforted’ (Mt 5:4). Let no one go away with the impression that the Gospel makes us take a gloomy view of the world and of life. It hinders us indeed from taking a superficial view and finding a vain transitory joy in what we see, but it forbids our immediate enjoyment only to grant enjoyment in truth and fullness afterwards. It only says, if you begin with pleasure, you will end with pain. It bids us begin with the Cross of Christ, and in that Cross we shall at first find sorrow, but in a while peace and comfort will rise out of that sorrow. That Cross will lead us to mourning, repentance, humiliation, prayer, fasting. We shall sorrow for our sins, we shall sorrow with Christ’s sufferings. But all this sorrow will be undergone in a happiness far greater than the enjoyment which the world gives though careless worldly minds indeed will not believe this, will ridicule the notion of it and consider it a mere matter of words which no one really feels. This is what they think. But our Savior said to his disciples, ‘you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you’ (Jn 16:22). ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you’ (Jn 14:27). And St. Paul says, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived ... God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor 2:9). And thus the Cross of Christ, as telling us of our redemption as well as of his sufferings, wounds us indeed, but so wounds as to heal also.

And thus, too, all that is bright and beautiful, even on the surface of this world, though it has no substance and may not suitably be enjoyed for its own sake, yet is a figure and promise of that true joy which issues out of the atonement. It is a promise beforehand of what is to be. It is a shadow, raising hope because the substance is to follow, but not to be rashly taken instead of the substance. And it is God’s usual mode of dealing with us, in mercy to send the shadow before the substance, that we may take comfort in what is to be before it comes. Thus, our Lord before his Passion rode into Jerusalem in triumph, with the multitudes crying Hosanna and strewing his road with palm branches and their garments. This was but a vain and hollow pageant, nor did our Lord take pleasure in it. It was a shadow which stayed not but flitted away. It could not be more than a shadow, for the Passion had not been undergone by which his true triumph was accomplished. He could not enter into his glory before he had first suffered. He could not take pleasure in this semblance of it, knowing that it was unreal. Yet that first shadowy triumph was the omen and presage of the true victory to come, when he had overcome the sharpness of death.

And so, too, as regards this world, with all its enjoyments, yet disappointments. Let us not trust it. Let us not give our hearts to it. Let us not begin with it. Let us begin with Christ. Let us begin with his Cross and the humiliation to which it leads. Let us first be drawn to him who is lifted up, that he may, with himself, freely give us all things. Let us ‘seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,’ and then all those things of this world shall be ours as well (Mt 6:33). They alone are able truly to enjoy this world who begin with the world unseen. They alone enjoy it who have first abstained from it. They alone inherit it who take it as a shadow of the world to come, and who for that world to come relinquish it.”
~St. John Henry Newman