Today is the feast day of this great Doctor of the Church.
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We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures. However deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seems of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.
For this reason the apostle Paul said of Christ, "In Him are hidden all the treasures of the widsom and knowledge of God." The soul cannot enter into these treasures, nor attain them, unless it first crosses into and enters the thicket of suffering, enduring interior and exterior labors, and unless it first receives from God very many blessings in the intellect and in the senses, and has undergone long spiritual training.
All these are lesser things, disposing the soul for the lofty sanctuary of the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ. This is the highest wisdom attainable in this life. Would that men might come at last to see that is quite impossible to reach the thicket of the riches and the wisdom of God except by first entering the thicket of much suffering, in such a way that the soul find there its consolation and desire.
The soul that longs for divine wisdom chooses first and in truth to enter the thicket of the cross. Saint Paul therefore urges the Ephesians not to grow weary in the midst of tribulations, but to be rooted and grounded in love, so that they may know with all the saints the breadth, the length, the heighth, and the depth, to know what is beyond knowledge, the love of Christ so as to be filled with all the fullness of God.
The gate that gives entry into these riches of his wisdom is the cross. Because it is a narrow gate, while many seek the joys that can be gained through it, it is given to few to desire to pass through it.
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