Expiation: the Great and the Little Way

    On the Cross, Our Lord Jesus Christ took the sins of the whole world, of all times and places, upon Himself. “By sending His own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity (cf. Phil 2:7) on account of sin, God ‘made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Cor 5:21)” (CCC 602). If we consider the great mounds of sin humanity has piled up in our own time, even in just the last two or three years, what then is the sum of the sins of all times and places? All this the Lord took upon Himself, making expiation for mankind on the Cross – out of love. Into the great darkness of sin and hate and selfishness, Our Lord Jesus brought the light of love, the light of purity and self-giving service. This is the Great Way of Expiation, which He alone has traveled, through the great love and mercy of God.

    Yet the Lord does not will to save the world by Himself, He asks for our loving cooperation. He asks us to share in His love for God and our fellow men. “The way we came to know love was that He laid down His life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 Jn 3:16). Jesus wants to see His light and His love burning in our hearts, too, that we too may bring light and love into the darkness of the world around us. “O soul, how long will it take you, until you burn with love?” (Mother Gabriele, Little Way of Expiation). While Our Lord walked the Great Way of expiation on Golgotha, He calls us to follow Him on the little way, the little way of expiation in everyday life.

Looking to God

    Sometimes we forget the greatness of the Lord’s love for us in the Most Holy Eucharist, the greatness of His Self-emptying in order to remain with us day and night, at all times! Are we conscious of the suffering of Our Lord, of His thirst for us precisely in this Sacrament of Love?

Out of Divine love, He wills to exclude Himself from nothing, neither from feeling or living like us, nor even from the experience of dishonor, coldness and indifference. Thus, He lies veiled as the Sacrificial Lamb in the Tabernacle and on the paten. Thus, as One bound He delivers Himself over to our power over Him, not as a likeness, not as one transfigured over the bridge of eternity, not as a corpse, but as One who is living with all His senses. One day men shall realize with horror how much they let Our Lord in the Tabernacle divinely hunger for us, let Him divinely freeze in the face of our coldness of heart, while divinely interceding for us as on the Cross, “FATHER, FORGIVE THEM, THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.” If we had a living faith in Jesus Christ in the Tabernacle, in this hungering, thirsting love, it would make our way to Him easier, the way of love and expiation. (Mother Gabriele, Little Way)

    Thus, if we want to follow the Lord on this way of love, we must first set our sights straight. God should be at the center of all our striving and seeking, God and His love, God and His thirst for souls. All our love, all our fidelity and sacrifice should have Him as its source and goal. But in order to fix our gaze on God, we must first detach it from ourselves.

Look away from yourself, whether you are esteemed; look away from your possessions, which make your vision narrow and small; look away from the bonds of the earth, as if there were nothing else but these! Rather, look up through your Angel to God, your Lord! This is where your path leads, this is your goal, this is where your gaze should remain fixed. Do not ask your ego what it wants, rather, ask God what He wants. Do you not hear His call, “I thirst for souls, help save souls!”? By saving souls for the Lord, you save yourself into the mercy of God.

Not “I” first, but God first! “What do You want from me, O Lord?” asks the soul that is ready to love, to obey, to be silent, to burn and to abandon everything out of love. And the Lord, crowned with thorns and yet wearing the thorns victoriously like a royal crown, will bend down and beckon to His Angels: “Go with her on the little way of expiation.” (ibid.)

Walking with the Angel

    It is the Angel who leads on this little way, enlightening our mind to see the meaning and the need for expiation, along with all the little opportunities for expiation, the little steps we can take to our own sanctification and for the good of souls.

We must will what God wills of us: to take little steps in love, because the world takes big steps and stumbles the while. We must take little steps because we are supposed to draw those along with us who do not want to take any more steps at all, because they have grown indifferent for having stumbled so often. We must take little steps in the folly of the Cross and in our own certitude that of ourselves we are utterly incapable of taking any big steps towards God. We must take little steps in the integrity of childhood before God. Moreover, we do not want to take anything but very little steps, lest we step out of the hand of God which holds us. (Little Way)

    The Angel strengthens our will to follow this path with fidelity, to say yes to all trials and situations, with joy! “Maintaining joy when no great obstacles arise is easy; but radiating joy in the midst of pain and weariness, in the face of pressing cares, is only possible with the ‘ECCE’, with the ‘SANCTUS’, with ardent love” (ibid.). The Angel protects us from the insinuations of the evil one who continually wants to discourage or deceive us: “Why should you step back in silence? Why should you be the one to help? Do you think this sacrifice will accomplish anything? This is simply too much!” Without the Angel, we would in no way be capable of walking this path. He says to us rather:

“Only little steps, sister soul! Know that expiation is love. Love proceeds most carefully! Rejoice, rejoice always! Love is grace, and being permitted to expiate is a great grace! Throughout the day offer holy joy to God as expiation. Promise to do everything with interior joy, which is reflected even outwardly. Expiate in love, rejoice over it!” (ibid.)

    Yet the Angel’s help does not come automatically. He strives to awaken our desire to offer up in expiation. “He waits for our least act of will, for the sake of which he may hasten immediately to our aid. He never imposes himself, although we would desire this so very much in order to be protected against ourselves” (ibid.). Let us ask our Angel every day, therefore, to accompany and lead us on this little way of expiation and love. Let us thank him also daily for all his solicitous care and help.

Holy Angel of God, you who by the will of God are my protector, give me your eyes, so that I learn to see and to discern God and all that is good; give me your ears, so that I learn to hear and to discern God and all that is good; give me your hands with the proper weapons against myself and against everything that is opposed to God. Amen. (ibid.)

The ECCE in daily life

    The little way is not a way of great deeds and visible victories, but a way of hidden love and of the little steps in everyday life. “The little steps are the steps of Mary in daily life, which she took before, at the side of and behind her Son. And this is the principal reason why we should walk in this way. Every step an ‘ECCE’, every step a ‘SANCTUS’!” (Little Way). By the light of the Angel, we must learn to recognize all the little opportunities we can offer to the Lord out of love, for all those who forget the Lord, forget to pray, forget their duty to adore and serve Him – especially for His priests and consecrated souls. Thus, with every sorrow, Ecce; with every inconvenience or difficult situation or relationship, Ecce. With our own weakness, weariness or incapacity, Ecce – and this with joy, without tiring, without becoming discouraged. In blind faith and blind hope, we must learn to trust God and His loving Providence which guides and directs every moment of our lives. Do we not “know that all things work for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). Although suffering can be bitter like myrrh, we know that God is using it for our own good and for the good of souls. But…

The soul is still whimpering. It hopes that the little jug of myrrh will soon be empty. Ah, but this is a little jug “ever-full.” The “ECCE” comes well enough and also the “SANCTUS,” but the joy is on the verge of drowning in this little jug. Does not all prayer and expiation appear to be in vain? Is there no Angel who can protect against the penetration on every side by the creeping poison of the infernal forces?

“Have no fear,” says the Angel with the crown of thorns, “and do not stop. When you stop, you fall back. Cling to the sober love of God. When it strikes, it heals. When it is bitter, it clarifies. When it denies you something, it leads you to the goal. The sober love of God is far-sighted and providing. It does not allow itself to be influenced, and forges straight ahead. It provides for the proper nourishment of the soul, and for the proper rest. It is full of measure and wisdom. It opens the hand of God at the proper time, and closes it again at the proper time, in giving and taking.” (Little Way)

    The call to expiation is a vocation and a grace! It is a call to draw nearer to Jesus in His work of the Redemption, to love more, to give more, and to bring along as many souls as we possibly can. On this path, we will grow most quickly in the spiritual life. But we must always remain humble and recognize we are but poor sinners. The Work of the Holy Angels is a work of sinners for sinners.

Soul, do not forget your “ECCE,” your “SANCTUS,” do not forget blind faith, blind hope, blind love, and unshakeable trust! Do not forget, soul, to love doubly, to be twice as faithful, to step forward with double courage when God calls on you to speak out for His honor and that of His own. Also, do not forget to be humble and to consider yourself truly worse than those who cause you tribulation. Do you not have to be trampled into the ground in order to become a supporting ground for those you love? Are you not truly worse, when you consider the many squandered graces and manifestations of God’s love which you failed to use? (ibid.)

Even the greatest of Saints, such as St. Francis of Assisi, considered themselves in truth the worst of sinners precisely for this reason. If others had received the same graces, they maintained, they would have made much better use of them. Thus, we must remain always humble and acknowledge, any good we do is a gift of God and His loving Providence. It is not our Work, but His, and the Work of His Angels.

The Fiat Mihi

 With our “Ecce”, we say “yes” to God and submit ourselves to His holy will. But as we grow in the spiritual life, the Lord expects more of us. He awaits our “fiat mihi”, “let it be done unto me according to your word”. He expects not only submission to His will, but also that we embrace His holy will for us, even in pain and suffering, and offer it to Him as a gift.

The thorn causes pain, it pierces the heart, so that other hearts might heal, once they are opened and broken before God. Behold, the crown of thorns about the heart is far less visible than the crown of thorns about the head, and still, it is far more painful. Accept it calmly, this crown, and tell yourself, “this is the bridal crown of hidden souls and of the least ones. You can easily hold it with two hands. How good God is that HE gives me only such a little measure. Now I have nothing more to do than to answer, “Fiat mihi” in order to be led wherever HE wills. (ibid.)

    The Lord sends us trials and difficulties as an opportunity to love, to prove our love for Him, to imitate His Divine love which sent His Only-Begotten to die on the Cross for us. “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another” (1Jn 4:10-11).

The little way of expiation continues in the midst of cooking and eating and washing and ironing, and all the little things of daily life, from day to day and from night to night, and it gets more and more difficult and, perhaps for this reason , slower. A relaxed look at things, time for a relaxed prayer and a deep breather for the soul have not been possible now for a long time already. But in their stead comes an ever more intensive inclusion of all, even the least things, into the adoration of God. The desk lamp’s light must help in giving praise, the humming flies, and the sore, aching tooth; the care for those afar… (Little Way)

    In these inconveniences, we must learn not to look at self in self-pity or grumbling, but to give it to the Lord as a gift. The greater the sacrifice of our own will, the more it becomes a gift of our very selves. For the will is our greatest possession, what we identify with our “self”. When we renounce our own will and offer it to God out of love for Him and His holy will, in blind faith and blind trust, we give our very selves to Him in a “nuptial gift” of our whole being.

In the case of a great pain dwelling within, it is natural to look at oneself, yes, to veritably meditate oneself. But this must be quickly changed along the little way of expiation. Pain comes from the Lord, and returns with our good will and all our love to the Lord. Pain is only the servant inviting us to the wedding feast. There, where the servant wants to lead us, is where we must look, to God, to the end of pain with Him to the sanctification of pain through Him, to the union of His Cross with our cross, which means love. Our “fiat mihi” ought to be even much more love than our “ECCE,” because it is a greater renunciation of the will than the latter, because it is already an immersion into the Divine will. It is not a weakening, but rather a conscious wedding gift. (ibid.)

    Usually the Lord sends us not one great trial, but many little trials every day. If we accept and offer these sacrifices over a lifetime, they become one great hymn of praise to the Lord, one great gift of self. We go with our little shovel and, scoop for scoop, remove the mounds of sin and guilt piled up by the world. We take very little steps, but sure steps in the right direction of love, fidelity and obedience to the will of God for us. And by these little steps, we will reach the goal. By God’s grace, the world will be transformed and conquered by an army of these little souls at the hand of the Angel. Therefore, we want to be vigilant, listening for and obeying the lead of the Angel, not letting any opportunity pass us by. “Lord, let us praise You in all the little things of daily life! Let us thank You through all the little things of daily life! Let us love You in all the little things of daily life!” (ibid.).

Imitating the Guardian Angel

    On this little way of expiation, we will learn to understand our own Guardian Angel and his difficult task more and more. When we bear the burden, the guilt of others, bearing the Cross which they have cast aside, we ourselves will become “Guardian Angels” for those entrusted to us. Fasting for a wayward son or spouse, offering up silent sacrifices for a priest in danger, being helpful to all those around us, so that a depressed or suicidal grandchild may receive the grace of healing… In all these ways, we become a Guardian Angel for the other, hiddenly supporting and carrying their Cross of guilt in prayer and loving expiation.

Kneel down by the Cross, soul, before your Lord and God, and pray for the grace to be allowed to expiate. Whoever raises the expiatory burden to his shoulder like a Cross assumes the function of a human Guardian Angel. He will learn to see and hear and feel what a Guardian Angel has to silently go through with his charge, without being allowed to call out, shake the person up or strike a blow. He will learn to recognize much more clearly the exigencies of God towards himself. He will be allowed to love and serve silently, and like his Guardian Angel, he will never again withdraw his face from the face of God. Henceforth, the assumption of expiation should never again be a “You should not come without your brother,” but should already be the answer, “Lord, I do not want to come before Your Face without my brother.” (ibid.)

    Meditating in this Lenten Season on our Lord on the Cross and on Mary suffering and interceding beneath the Cross, we will also come to understand ever better the hidden, silent suffering of our Guardian Angel. These are our models, Mary and the holy Angel, who pray and sacrifice and expiate in silence and hiddenness, looking not to themselves, but to the Lord on the Cross.

During this night the soul was granted the understanding of the great grace as well as the great burden of spiritual Guardian Angelship. Only now is the soul learning to grasp what a Guardian Angel does. It is like a reflection of the Passion, but as experienced by Mary. Mary also saw and looks on how the Lord is trodden into the dirt, is scorned and crucified by us—yet she is silent, and expiates and loves. And notwithstanding, she accompanies us as our intercessor, as the faithful one. Similarly, the Angel is a faithful intercessor and helper. He is silent, loving and waiting. Likewise our expiatory task should be carried out in silence, helpfulness, charity and fidelity in which we never abandon our charge. (ibid.)

    The more faithful and preserving we are in this little way of expiation, the more we will experience the Cross as our Guardian Angel experiences it. We will feel our weakness and helplessness, and will be tempted to think, all our sacrifice and effort is not changing anything. But God and the Holy Angels see things differently.

Each day, soul, you should begin anew this little way of expiation with new eyes. Behold, here on earth this way appears very small, but there on the other side of the bridge, it is great in the eyes of the Angels. And yet, O soul, you are so little, so little in comparison with the Angels! When your steps through your daily duties and troubles seem little to you, how little then must they be for the Angel who accompanies you? Still, he keeps pace with you, although he is accustomed to other standards than you. The same thing happens to him as to you: You apply yourself in a spirit full of love for your charge and he does not care in the least about you—this is exactly what happens to the Guardian Angel. Indeed, if your charge saw you, he would say very mockingly: “Thank you, I can take care of myself well enough alone.” Yes, this is exactly what happens to the Guardian Angel. And you can only silently sign your charge with the love of God, with the waking call of God, with the light of God, and all the while, it is as though all your efforts were too weak—behold, this is exactly what happens to the Guardian Angel. You lift your face and hands up to God: the Guardian Angel does the same. You let the entire force of patience, long-suffering and Divine mercy flow through you to your charge, you draw it down for him, just as the Guardian Angel does. (ibid.)

But in our incapacity and weakness, we are strong, if we surrender this very weakness to Him. For here God Himself can step in and accomplish what we cannot. His Blood in us becomes the expiation for our charges. He will save where we cannot. “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:22-24).

Lord, I want to offer You this weakness of soul and body as my sacrifice, more than this, I have not. And I want to implore You for all those who are much better than I, that they might come even closer to You. I want to implore You for all those for whom I ought to stand in and who, indeed, are standing in for me to lift me up and get me going again. And the little way of expiation should be like this: that for my weakness and for my failings I offer You Your own Blood, which You shed for me; and Your wounds, which You are always offering me as a place of refuge, so that through the hands of the heavenly Mother, I may let Your own Heart render expiation for all that I ought to do and cannot, for all that I ought not to do, yet did. And in this wee daily life, may every second, every breath, every hand motion of this least of men be in advance an irrevocable praise for You, my God! (Little Way)

    Jesus has already walked the Great Way of Expiation for us. He has won for us the grace and invites us now to walk with Him on the Little Way of Expiation. He, in and through us, will make the expiation. We need only to remain little and faithful, to share His thirst for souls, and to set out on this way with Mary and the holy Angels, with courage, trust and great love! Jesus Himself will win for us the victory – even if we only come to realize it in eternity – and then there will be: Easter joy!       (smb)