Beginning of the homily
2. The Spouse and his espoused should be alike
Just as in Christian marriage the man and woman leave
their father and mother: “And the two shall become one flesh. So they are no
longer two but one” (Mk 10:8; Cf. Mt 19:5–6), so
in the spiritual marriage there should be no longer be two, but only one. In
the world when two people want to get married, people ask: Are they two of a
kind? Are they made for each other? And they have good reason to ask.
Since they are Spouses of Christ, they should have His
qualities. They should imitate Him in everything in order to configure
themselves to Him, just as a wife should configure herself to her husband; but
with even greater reason, for he is Jesus Christ.
The Spouse is to have the qualities of a Lamb (Jn 1:29):
meek, humble, obedient, patient. The Wife is to have the qualities of a dove (Song
of Songs 2:14; 5:2; 6: 9; 1:15; 2:12), a dove without bitterness,
humble, patient, simple. The angry, impatient, annoyed, and rough religious,
who is troublesome and scheming, who talks a lot and frivolously and is a
gossip and a schemer does not have the qualities of her husband, and is not a
good spouse of Jesus Christ. A religious is compared to a dove because her song
is a sigh. If she is a noisy and dissipated, she is not a good spouse. “The
song and the laugh of the religious must be to cry for her spouse Jesus Christ.
In the choir, in the garden, in the dinning room, in the cell, and everywhere,
she has to sigh for Jesus Christ her Spouse. This must be her office and her
song. And when she is singing in the choir with still sweeter melody, her heart
must be pining with deep interior sighs for her most beloved Spouse, whose
memory and wishes must never leave her heart. She must lie down at night with
them, and she must dream of them while sleeping, and they must be the first
thought to be recalled to her mind; her heart always melting with His love, and
her mind occupied with nothing but her beloved Spouse” (St. John of Avila).
This is a project that can fulfill an entire lifetime
and completely fill those hearts with the greatest dreams and most magnificent
hopes! Jesus Christ offers this to the purest souls, the most generous souls,
those who risk everything for Him alone! It is worth it!
The religious must make herself like Christ, imitating
all of his life of works, sorrows, poverty, humility, and “love for the
espoused so great that for this love He poured out His blood, in order that by
it He might make her who was ugly beautiful. He died on the cross in order to
give her life, because she was dead” (St. John of Avila).
For this reason the religious should always keep in
mind Who her Spouse is, how great His love is, and how much He loves her. What
spouse has there been in the world who has taken blood from his veins to make
his spouse beautiful? Religious sisters have a Spouse who, for love of them,
ripped his veins, opened his side, allowed his hands and feet to be pierced,
received lashes and a crown of thorns, and died on the cross. This is why the
true spouse should even shed her blood for her Divine Spouse if it is asked of
her. If the Spouse went by this road, she who did not follow would be a bad
spouse. Moreover, the delight of the true Spouse has to be willingly suffering
for her beloved Spouse. In this she shows how much she loves Him; and so she
should not look for consolation on the earth, nor comfort from creatures, so
that she might receive them from the Spouse.
(Cont..)
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