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Reading: Lenten Weekday
April 1, 2023
Submission to God in Suffering is a Source of Peace 7
From the writings of Dom Columba Marmion
When we thus submit ourselves entirely to Christ Jesus, when we abandon
ourselves to Him, when our soul only responds, like His own, with a perpetual
Amen to all that He asks of us in the name of His Father… then Christ Jesus
establishes His peace in us: His peace, not that which the world promises, but the
true peace which can only come from Himself…
Doubtless, here below, peace is not always sensible; upon earth we are in a
condition of trial and, most often, peace is won by conflict… We may be slighted,
opposed, persecuted, be unjustly treated, our intentions and deeds may be
misunderstood; temptation may shake us, suffering may come suddenly upon us;
but there is an inner sanctuary which none can reach; here is the sojourn of our
peace, because in this innermost secret of the soul dwell adoration, submission
and abandonment to God. “I love my God,” said St. Augustine, “no one takes
Him from me: no one takes from me what I ought to give Him, for that is
enclosed within my heart…
Death cannot trouble the soul that has sought only God. Has it not
confided itself to the One Who says: “He that believeth in Me, although he be
dead, shall live”…
In one of her “Exercises,” St. Gertrude allows her assurance, which the
infinite merits of Jesus give her, to overflow. “Woe, woe unto me, if, when I come
before Thee, I had no advocate to plead my cause!… Come Thou with me to
judgment… there let us stand together. Judge me, for the right is Thine; but
remember Thou are also my Advocate. In order that I be fully acquitted, Thou
has but to recount what Thou didst become for love of me, the price wherewith
Thou hast purchased me…
For souls moved by such sentiments, death is but a transition; Christ
comes Himself to open to them the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem… There will
be no more darkness, trouble, tears, or sighs; but peace, infinite and perfect
peace. “Peace first becomes ours with the longing and seeking for the Creator; it
is in the full vision and eternal possession of Him that peace is made perfect.”
7 Marmion, Dom Columba, O.S.B. Suffering with Christ: An anthology of the Writings of Dom Columba
Marmion, O.S.B. Compiled by Dom Raymund Thibaut, O.S.B. Westminster, Maryland: The Newman
Press, 1954. 220-221, 232-233.