LENT - OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH?

 Meditation — Obedient Unto Death

This expression, “Obedient unto Death,“ we have frequently heard in myriad ways, and we often meditate upon it. Odds are quite good you have imagined yourself to be so.

- But have we conformed our lives to this model so worthy of imitation? Truly?
- Can we confess that we often try to appear superior in our natural and spiritual talents? Probably.
- Do we not all too frequently boast of our accomplishments, like no one is our equal? Of course we do.
- Does not history show how Man, in his pride, has exceeded all bounds, seeking to place himself on a level with — and at times, even above — Almighty God?
Let me answer - YES

    Yet Christ, Who was true God, "emptied Himself, taking the nature of a slave and being made 'like unto men,' appearing in the form of man; He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even to the death of the Cross" (Phil. 2:7).
It is precisely in this deep humiliation that He wishes to continue dwelling among us. Every Crucifix tells us this: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart…I have been obedient unto death. . . I am full of love and patience."

    Most of us will go to any lengths to cancel out degradation from our fellow men, while trying to give the most favorable possible impression of ourselves.
    King Agesilaus of Sparta was a most excellent ruler, celebrated for his justice and wisdom, but he was most unattractive physically. At his death, he strictly forbade any portrait to be made of himself, whether painted or sculptured. The king feared lest such a visible remembrance of him might lessen the love and esteems which he had gained among his people during his lifetime because of his just and wise rule.

    But the Son of God did not fear to approach us in His deepest humiliation and ignominy. He displays Himself to us in all His woe, summoning us to contemplate Him as the Man of Sorrows, asking that we grow in humility and patience by studying His own resignation to the Will of His Heavenly Father.
    In the gripping words of the prophet Isaias: "There is no beauty in him, nor comeliness; and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness that we should be desirous of him: Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity; and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not" (Is. 63:2-4).

    By means of these liturgical texts, let us penetrate the portrait of our sorrowful Redeemer, learning from Him all the virtues necessary that, in St. Paul's words, "Christ may be formed in us" (Gal. 4:19).

    This portrait of the patient, loving, CRUCIFIED Savior, Who out of deference to the Will of His Heavenly Father freely went forth to death for us, must stand starkly before our souls' eyes – if we are to really conform our life, sacrifice, sufferings and death to His.
Then "from glory to glory" His portrait will gradually take form in us in transcending beauty, and having suffered with Christ, we shall, according to God's own promise, "participate in His resurrection."

    What better prayer during Lent, then, could rise form the depths of our hearts than that of St. Gertrude, kneeling before her Crucifix:

"Accept, O compassionate Jesus, this my prayer with that exceeding love wherewith Thou didst endure a bitter death and didst offer it, together with all the fruit of Thy most sacred Humanity, to God the Father on the day of Thine Ascension; and by the depth of those wounds which scarred Thy Flesh and pierced Thy Hands and Feet and Heart, I beseech Thee, raise me up, who am steeped and sunk in sin, and render me well pleasing to Thee in all things."

— Bernard Strasser, “The Dews of Tabor”

source- CatholicCulture.com