6 Vol. LIX, No. 1 Magnificat world with its worldliness, by following their whims, their appetites, pleasures and vanities. Beware, for these ideas can manifest themselves in the life of any Christian, any disciple of Jesus who neglects to do violence to himself in order to follow his Master. When we begin to neglect ourselves and follow the world, its vanities, its way of life, its style, its manners, its thinking, it is not long before the world imposes itself. We see it, the world imposes itself. God invites us: “Will you, My child? The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only the violent bear it away.” Jesus tells us no more, no less: If you want to establish My kingdom on earth, do violence to yourself. If you would be My disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross each day, and follow Me.5 That is an invitation. And the more we do what contradicts our nature, the sweeter the yoke becomes. The world does the opposite: it lures you, seduces you. You adopt its thinking, and eventually you are caught under its yoke. You have to follow it. And the more you follow it, the less choice you have. You have to adopt its manner, its styles, its thinking, its folly. Although the world says that following God is folly, real folly is rampant on the earth today. And the world goes even further, eventually imposing itself upon you with violence. If you do not want to follow its folly, it will persecute you. They will start by giving you a fine, and they may even put you in prison. It can go very far, and the trend is developing steadily. What is the remedy for this violence of the world imposing its diabolical, destructive folly which is contrary to God, and even increasingly contrary to humanity? The kingdom of God must come to this earth. In order for Him to reign, says Jesus, The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and 5. Cf. St. Luke 9:23. only the violent bear it away. This is the reason for the watchword I give you. I repeat what I have been saying to you for the past two years, my brothers and sisters: Do it graciously. It sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But it is the reality. Do violence to yourselves graciously, that is, in such a way that you do not burden your neighbor. It is not to your brother or sister that you do violence. You do violence to yourself, to go against everything that might divert you from the will of God, from His expectation. We humans are so earthbound, subject to the law of gravity. Our dear Father John Gregory liked to make this comparison: We are a bit like toads that God has asked to fly. If the toad were endowed with reason and freedom, it would only have to yield and say, “God asks it, I do it,” instead of beginning to say: “But I am not made for that, I am full of warts, I am made to be on my belly, to crawl on the ground. When I jump, I can barely lift myself off the ground and then fall back on my belly. That is the way I am made. My God, do not ask me for anything else.” God asks us poor sinners to identify with His will, with the holiness of our Heavenly Father. Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.6 We have only one thing to do: do violence to ourselves to attain it – but do it graciously, without burdening our neighbor. We want so much to be pleasing to our good Heavenly Father. Under His divine gaze we languish, as it were, in the innermost depths of our being, to try to charm Him, touch Him, by accepting all the providential circumstances that make us suffer and that detach us from the earth. Instead of complaining publicly about all our little sufferings, let us do to ourselves the violence of remaining silent about the trials that visit us. As much as we can, let us maintain a certain gracious manner, first 6. St. Matthew 5:48.
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