Vigils Reading – St Elizabeth of the Trinity

WITH CHRIST I AM NAILED TO THE CROSS

From the writing of St Elizabeth of the Trinity4

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The soul that longs to serve God day and night in His temple, in the inner sanctuary of which St. Paul speaks when he says: “The temple of God is holy, which temple you are” such a soul must be resolved to take a real share in the Passion of its Master. It is a ransom which in its turn will ransom other souls. Therefore it will sing… “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!”… “With Christ I am nailed to the cross.” And again: “I . . . fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for His Body, which is the Church.”…

Such is the attitude of this soul; it walks on the road to Calvary at the right hand of the crucified, crushed, and humbled King, Who, strong, calm, and full of majesty, goes to His Passion, to show forth “the glory of His grace.”

He desires His bride to join in His work of redemption, and the way of sorrow which she treads seems to her the way of beatitude, not only because it leads there, but also because her holy Teacher makes her understand that she must pass beyond the bitterness of suffering, to find her rest in it, as He did.

Then she can “serve God day and night in His temple.” Neither interior nor exterior trials can make her leave the fortress in which He has enclosed her. She no longer thirsts nor hungers, for in spite of her overwhelming longings for heaven she is satisfied with the food that was her Master’s — the will of the Father. She no longer feels the “sun fall on her” that is, she does not suffer from suffering, and the “Lamb . . . can lead her to the fountains of the waters of life,” where He will, as He will, for she looks not at the path whereon she walks, but at the Shepherd Who guides her.

God, bending down towards this soul, His adopted daughter who so closely resembles His Son, “the first-born of every creature,” recognizes it as one whom He has…justified; and His Fatherly heart thrills at the thought of perfecting His work…by transferring it to His kingdom, there to sing through endless ages “the praise of His glory!”…

The soul that gazes upon its Master with the simple eye which makes the whole body full of light, is “kept from the iniquity” within it. The Lord makes it enter the “spacious place,” which is nothing else than Himself; there all is pure, all is holy.
O, blessed death in God! O, sweet and delightful loss of self within Him Whom we love!

Henceforth the creature can say: “With Christ I am nailed to the cross. And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me. And that I live now in the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and delivered Himself for me.