As there are, more thorns than roses in our earthly life, and more dull
days than sunny ones, so also in our spiritual life our souls are more
frequently clouded by a sense of desolation, dryness, and gloom, than
irradiated by heavenly consolations and brightness.
Yet our Blessed Father says that "those are mistaken who think that, even
in Christians, whose conscience does not accuse them of sins unconfessed,
but on the contrary bears good witness for them, a heavy heart and
sorrow-laden mind is a proof of God's displeasure.
"Has God not said that He is with us in tribulation, and is not His Cross
the mark of the chosen? At the birth of Jesus, while the shepherds were
surrounded by the light which shone from heaven and their ears filled with
the songs of angels, Mary and Joseph were in the stable in the darkness of
night, the silence only broken by the weeping of the Holy Child. Yet who
would not rather be with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in that shadowy gloom
than with the shepherds even in their ecstasy of heavenly joy? St. Peter,
indeed, amid the glories of Thabor said: _It is good to be here, let us
make here three tabernacles_.[1] But Holy Scripture adds: _Not knowing what
he said_.
"The faithful soul loves Jesus covered with wounds and disfigurements on
Calvary, amid the darkness, the blood, the crosses, the nails, the thorns,
and the horror of death: loves Him, I say, as dearly, as fervently as in
His triumph, and cries out from a full heart amid all this desolation:
"Let us make here three tabernacles, one for Jesus, one for His holy
Mother, and one for His beloved disciple."
[Footnote 1: Luke ix, 33.]