the Passion of Jesus, Jesus Christ 

The Cross of Jesus is a masterpiece of spiritual writing from the seventeenth century. Spiritual writers throughout the centuries have developed their doctrine from various points of view and have attempted to find some central theme which would best serve as a vehicle for explaining the many facets of growth in holiness. Father Chardon uses as his theme the cross of Jesus and the cross of the Christian. In other words, he explains the imitation of Christ and transformation in Christ by suffering and the cross. In this respect he closely resembles St. John of the Cross and other theologians of the spiritual life who emphasized purification and self-negation.

Love has two necessary effects: union and separation. The more intense the love, the more intimate and profound the union between the lovers. At the same time, the very union of the lovers necessitates a separation or detachment from that which would divert the lover's attention and affection from the beloved. Father Chardon stresses the separating effect of love as concomitant with the soul's progress toward the transforming union.

Father Chardon is almost severe in his exposition of the cross in the life of the Christian. By the cross he does not mean merely the afflictions and sufferings of man's daily life or even the extraordinary trials sent to chosen souls. Neither does he refer exclusively to voluntary mortification and abnegation. He extends the meaning of the cross to include the passive purifications of the night of the senses and the night of the spirit.

However, The Cross of Jesus is by no means a purely negative or quietistic approach to the spiritual life. Father Chardon insists repeatedly on the all-important positive doctrine of the indwelling of the Trinity and the incorporation of Christians into the mystical body of Christ.

Jesus came to earth to die, for the redemption of men. That, as far as we can learn from the revealed word of God, is the sole motive for the Incarnation. And since Jesus came to be our Redeemer and as a Redeemer to die for us, he was from the first moment of His conception orientated toward the cross. And Mary, His Mother, being so closely associated with Christ and the Trinity, also shared, more than any other creature, this inclination to suffering and the cross. After Mary, all Christians, in the measure that they approach Christ, approach suffering and the cross. "Unless you take up your cross, you are not worthy to be called My disciple."

The Author

Father Louis Chardon was born in France in 1595 and entered the Dominican Order at Paris in 1618. The Cross of Jesus was published in 1647, after Father Chardon had spent many years as a master of novices and director of souls. His other works consisted of a biography of St. Samson, a French translation of the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, a small treatise on the art of meditation, a book of daily meditations on the Passion of Christ, and a French translation of Tauler's Institutiones Divinae. The Cross of Jesus is his greatest work and is a compendium of spiritual doctrine on the suffering and purification which are necessary for growth in holiness. Father Chardon died of the plague in 1651.

The Translator

Father Richard Murphy, OP, is an experienced translator, his most recent publication being the translation of Ricciotti's History of Israel. Father Murphy pursued his studies in Jerusalem and in Rome and is one of the few priests in the United States to receive the coveted doctorate in Sacred Scripture. At present he is professor of Sacred Scripture at St. Rose Priory, the Dominican House of Theology in Dubuque, Iowa, and at St. Bernard's Seminary in the same city.

Taken from the inside flaps.