“Bring here thy finger
and see my hands…” (Jn. 20, 27).
St. Josemaria
Escriva: “How truly lovable is the
Sacred Humanity of our God! – You ‘entered’ into the most holy Wound of your
Lord’s right hand, and you asked me: ‘If one of Christ ‘s Wounds cleanses,
heals, soothes, strengthens and kindles and enraptures, what will the five not
do, open on the wood?’” (The Way #555).
“This point refers to a mystical episode in the life of St. Josemaria, which he made anonymous in this text as was his custom. The way in which this point was written can be considered a prototype of the manner for narrating something where he wishes to disappear was the subject of the action while, at the same time, maintaining the dialogic style of the book. In this instance we have the precise documentation. It happened in Burgos on 6 June 1938. He was going to the Monastery of Las Huelgas, where he was researching for his doctoral thesis. He was walking slowly, in the morning, praying. This is what he noted telegraphically that night:
‘Monday, 6 June: My morning
prayer on my way to Huelgas guided by St. Joseph, with the light of the Holy
Spirit, I entered into the Wound of the right hand of my Lord.’”
The supernatural
event left him beset the whole day. When he wrote up his Notebook that nigh t,
he was still in the Wound of Christ. In the afternoon, he had written to Juan
Jimenez Vargas, the oldest member of
Opus Dei who was in the Nationalist zone, and with whom he talked in depth about intimate things (while
in Burgos he did not have any ‘older one’ with whom he could talk and
communicate things of God):
‘Dear Juanito: This morning, on my way to las Huelgas, where I went to
do my prayer, I discovered a new world: the Most Holy Wound of our Lord’s right
hand. I was there all day long, kissing and adoring. How truly lovable is the
Sacred Humanity of our God! Pray that he give me that real love of his and with
it completely purify all my other affections. It’s not enough to say, ‘Heart on
the cross!’ Because if one of Christ’s wounds cleans, heals, soothes,
strengthens, enkindles, and enraptures, what will the five not do, open on the
wood? Heart on the cross! O my Jesus, what more could I ask for! I realize that
if I continue contemplating in this way (St. Joseph, my father and lord, iis
the one who led me there, after I asked him to enkindle me), I’ll end up chalao, crazier than ever. Try it
yourself! […]
Much love.
From the Wound of the right hand, your Father blesses you.
From the Wound of the right hand, your Father blesses you.
Mariano
"The tradition of Christian piety, follow ing the great Saints, has
always ‘looked’ lovingly to the wounds of Christ and has ‘entered’ into them.
The bibliography on this subject is enormous. As so many Christian faithful
have done throughout the centuries, St.
Josemaria recited each day after Mass, the prayer En Ego: “As I reflect n your five wounds and dwell upon them with
deep compassion and grief;’ and he asked Jesus ‘in your wounds shelter me.’ The
Author’s insistence that it was the Wound of the right hand is impressive. In this regard I copy a text of St.
Teresa:
‘Appearing to me as on former occasions, He began by showing me the wound in His left hand, and then , with the other hand drew out a large nail which was embedded in it, in such a way that in drawing out the nail He seemed to me to be tearing the flesh. It was clear how very painful this must be and I was sorely grieved by it.’[1]
"The union and identification of St. Josemaria with Christ in the mystery of the Cross leads him to this amazing expression: ‘Heart on the Cross! Oh my Jesus, what more could I ask for ?’ To lose himself with Christ on the Cross was, for him t he greatest happiness. To understand this text, it seems necessary to study it in parallel with The Way 163[2], written in the Honduran Legation, and which has the same expression ‘Heart on the Cross!’ These words and their spiritual context were obviously known to Juan Jimenez Vargas, who also had been a refugee in the Honduran Legation with St. Josemaria. There he would have meditated on them. In the letter of June 6, there is an implicit dialogue with Jimenez Vargas regarding the same point , with a strong ‘ascetical’ message that could be considered as going ‘against- the-grain’ of the passions. But now, the Author has lived a renewed experience of the sweetness of the Cross: to have the heart on the Cross is not to ‘Crucify him,’ but to enter in to the joy of Christ. It is like saying to Jimenez Vargas, the young medical lieutenant who will read the letter on the Teruel front, that this ‘Hea r t on the Cross!’ ?#163 in the whole Cross of Christ, is the summit of ‘mysticism,’ the total joy in Christ” ‘My Jesus, what else could I wish!’ It is the pure gif t of God. The purification of the heart, to which he aspire d in # 163, is not pure consequence
"The practice of
entering in to the wounds of Christ had a long history for Josemaria Escriva.
The consideration that leads to #288 comes from January 1934. And from July of
that year stems his desire to fulfill the ‘old’ resolution of entering each day
‘into the Wound of the Side of my Lord.’ The contemplation of the Wounds of
Jesus occupied an important role in the life of prayer within the pathway
towards sanctity which the Author taught.”[3]
[1] Life, 39, 1.
[2] “’If your right eye scandalizes you, pluck
it out and cast it fr om you!’ Poor heart … that’s what scandalizes you!
Grasp it, hold it tight in your
hands – and don’t give it any consolation. And, when it asks for consolation,
full of noble compassion say to it slowly, as if confiding, ‘My heart… heart on
the cross, heart on the cross!’”
[3]
St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way A
critical-historical edit ion prepare d by Pedro Rodriguez, Scepter (2002)
724-726.
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