St. Andrew always had a great love for the Cross; at the hour of his death, when he saw the tree on which they were going to nail him, he greeted it with joy.
Newsroom (30/11/2021 13:34, Gaudium Press) Today is the feast of St. Andrew, Apostle: brother of St. Peter, arrested by the pro-Consul Aeneas, he was scourged and then suspended on a cross, on which he survived three days instructing the people. About St. Andrew, there are the following biographical notes taken from Rohrbacher’s “Lives of the Saints”:
“St. Andrew – the first Apostle to recognize Christ, to whom he led his brother Peter, the future first Head of the Church – always had a great love for the Cross; at the hour of his death, when he saw the tree on which they were going to nail him, he greeted it with joy.” You should not consider this greeting as meaningless, because every word has weight.
The St. Andrew’s Cross
The martyr, after being scourged and bloodied, stands before his cross, which, as you know, was in the shape of an X, and for this reason is called the Cross of St. Andrew. Before his cross, he exclaims: “O most beautiful Cross, glorified by the contact you have had with the Body of Christ! Great Cross, sweetly desired, ardently loved, always sought after, and at last prepared for my hurried heart, longing for you.”
This is the beauty of a man’s exclamation, in the hour of suffering that God has marked for him, for the acceptance of that cup which he must drink in order to have his glory in Heaven. That chalice, without whose drinking one achieves nothing in Heaven. He is the one who, after all, knows that the hour of his maximum suffering, of his martyrdom, has come; he knows what he is going to suffer because he has meditated countless times on the Passion of Our Lord, and he exhales his soul in these circumstances. He calls the cross, which was a despised thing and an instrument to arrest criminals: “Beautiful cross”! Then he explains why it is beautiful: it was glorified by the contact it had with the Body of Christ.
St. Andrew longed for the Cross as something sweet
He adds that he had desired her with sweetness. We can imagine him considering her for years, and years, and years, loving the martyrdom that had been prophesied for him, awaiting the hour when he would make, for God, this act of disinterested holocaust: to allow himself to be killed for Our Lord, in order to be broken in this way like the vase that Saint Magdalene broke with the ointment at the feet of the Divine Savior, for no practical use, in an act of disinterested love, in a holocaust that had no other reason for being than his own sacrifice. And this in such a way that, even if it was not good for souls, even if it was not edifying for many, even if it was not a humiliation for the opponents of the Church, just to prove to God that he carried his love to that point, he desired the cross as something sweet. You see what the soul of a martyr is, the splendors that are in the soul of a martyr.
St. Andrew had always looked for the crosses
He continues: “sweetly desired, ardently loved.” Men today run away from suffering in every way, that is exactly what they don’t want; no form of suffering, no form of struggle against their passions, no form of renunciation. They have the idea that life was given to be regaled and that one must enjoy it, and anything that is not enjoying life is dying.
This one, on the other hand, ardently loved his cross, understanding that what gives meaning to life is not the enjoyment or pleasure you may have, but it is the sacrifice you make. This is what gives pleasure and meaning to life. And that, therefore, every truly supernatural and truly man desires the encounter with his great cross, with his great martyrdom. This is the son of the Cross, this is the Friend of the Cross, of which Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort speaks in his book “Letter to the Friends of the Cross”.
St. Andrew continues: “always sought after”. What man, at the moment of giving account to God, can say that he has always sought the cross? that in everything he has sought sacrifice? On the contrary! Men are always running away from the cross, what they don’t want is sacrifice. But St. Andrew could give this testament of himself: he had always sought the cross. And that is why, when the cross approached him, he was willing to make the sacrifice.
The greatest proof of love for God
It continues, “and after all, prepared for my hurried heart.” That is, God, after all, gave the Cross to my heart that was in a hurry for the crucifixion.
Ah! If we could say… if I could say that my soul is in a hurry for the crucifixion, that it desires, that it flies to that crucifixion, what it wants is absolutely to give itself to God without reserve and to have this form of surrender which is exactly martyrdom! In peace of soul, certainly, but martyrdom. That is the ultimate holocaust.
Our Lord said: “No man can be a greater friend to another man than by offering his life for that man.” No man can give greater proof of God’s love than by desiring the cross in this way.
St. Andrew spent three days preaching on the cross
And he continues, “Cross prepared for my heart, longing for you; gather me, O cross.” Truly this is of a beauty!!!!
He continues: “embrace me, withdraw me from men, lead me quickly, diligently, to the Master; for you, He will receive me; He who, for you, has redeemed me.” Can there be a more beautiful prayer than this? Can there be a soul more ready for the beatific vision than a soul that, at the moment of death, says such a thing?
And you see the outcome: three days preaching on the cross, three days teaching men from the top of the cross. You can imagine what these words, these teachings, these graces, this martyrdom of Saint Andrew were… What a chair! Who in his life had a chair like a cross to teach men for three days?
He had two days in agony, but his last breath was still turned to the cross: “Lord, Eternal King of Glory, receive me hanging like this, as I am, on the tree, on the cross so sweet. You are my God. You whom I have seen, do not allow me to be hung up on the cross; do this for me, Lord, who have known the virtue of your Holy Cross.”
And he expired with these words. One can say that this is such a beautiful death, that only Our Lord’s death can be more beautiful than this. That is, the last word on the subject of the beautiful death!
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
