Holy Wednesday
April 17, 2019
The Via Dolorosa
FROM The Ideal of Reparation by Raoul Plus, S.J. (1882-1958):
“WHY did Christ come upon earth? To make Reparation; for no other reason. He came to repair His Divine work which sin had ruined, to restore to man his supernatural life; to compensate, by His merits, for the insult offered to the Father in the garden of Eden and for those insults which man’s malice daily renews and multiplies. He came to expiate by His sufferings in the stable, during His Hidden Life and on the Cross, the human selfishness which began with man’s creation and never ceases.
“Our dear Lord could have performed this work of Reparation alone, but He did not so will it. He has chosen as associates each one of us, every Christian. We must grasp this truth well, for it is the foundation of the doctrine of Reparation.
[…]
“Granted, our part in the Redemption of the world is infinitesimally small; what are a few drops of water ? But God requires it and He transubstantiates this tiny addition by uniting it with His own offering. This mere nothing becomes all-powerful, in virtue of the power communicated to it by God. Thanks to this ” nothing ” which has become ” something,” souls will be ransomed. Without the offering of this “nothing ” so intrinsically insignificant and yet so really precious, on account of our union with Christ many souls would probably be lost. The world needs all its potential saviours : it needs Jesus, its chief Saviour, its Saviour par excellence ; it needs each one of us, who are called to co-operate with Him in the redemption of the world. As Lacordaire says : ” The human race had perished as a whole, by men’s solidarity, that is to say by its corporeal and moral union with Adam its origin. Hence, it was fitting that humanity should be saved in the measure and manner of its loss, that is by the means of solidarity. Where the solidarity of evil had lost all,, by the solidarity of good, all has been re-established.” (Conference LXVL, De la Reparation.)
“We are almost ignorant of our greatness as Christians, if we do not know our obligation of sharing in the work of Redemption. If we try
to shirk our part, we are omitting a most noble, as well as a most peremptory, duty.
“But we must examine this matter more closely. How did Christ make Reparation?
“By suffering.”
The Ideal of Reparation, pp 15-16
