Embracing the Cross

As I was praying the Stations of the Cross today, Good Friday, I lingered at the Fifth Station (Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross).  Simon didn’t want to help Jesus – St. Matthew tells us Simon was “pressed into service” by the soldiers (Mt 27:32) and St. Luke tells us they “seized” Simon and made him carry the Cross (Lk 23:26).  And I can’t help but sympathize with him – who wants to carry a cross?  Let alone on behalf of a condemned criminal?

There is something about our human nature that is repulsed by the thought of the cross.  I know Jesus tells me to pick up my cross and follow after Him – I know He has said that those who don’t pick up their crosses are not worthy of Him – but part of me reflexively cringes at the thought.  What if it crushes me?  How can a good and loving God want this for me?

John Paul the Great’s Insights on the Cross
Blessed John Paul II, in one of his reflections on Good Friday, tells us that a proper understanding of the Cross requires a complete change of perspective.  The Cross is first and foremost a gift from Jesus.  It is a gift because it bestows on us the dignity of being participants in the work of salvation (both our own and others’).  In the words of St. Augustine, “He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.”  We must give our “yes” to Jesus, which means giving our “yes” to both the good and the bad, to the joy and the pain, and to everything that His Providence allows.

JPII also notes that St. Mark identifies the sons of Simon of Cyrene as members of the early Christian community (15:21).  Presumably then, Simon too, came to believe in Christ.  “By his carrying of the Cross, Simon was brought to the knowledge of the Gospel of the Cross.”  Through his encounter with Jesus, Simon was transformed – he went from being forced to carry Jesus’ Cross to willingly carrying his own!

This is what Jesus wills for us all: to lovingly pick up our crosses and follow after Him.  Why?  Because “it is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls.”  It is in our weakness that we find His strength: “to suffer means to become particularly susceptible, particularly open to the working of the salvific powers of God, offered to humanity in Christ” (JPII’s encyclical letter, Salvifici Doloris).  It is only when we are willing to put the will of God before even our own well-being, in complete and utter trust and love, that we truly live in the image the obedience of Jesus.  It is only when we are willing to suffer for the good of others that we truly image the love of the Son.  And it is only when we are willing to pick up our crosses, no matter the cost, and follow Jesus that we truly become conformed to Him.

Jesus, help us to trust in Your promise: that when we carry our crosses and are willing to lose our lives, we will find new life in You.  Give us the strength to not only bear our own burdens, but to lovingly help others carry their own crosses.  Fill us with your self-sacrificing and self-giving love, that we may no longer think of ourselves first, but instead be ready and willing to serve You by serving others.  Teach us to follow Your example, that we may be loving, humble and obedient to death as well, even death on a cross!

You may also enjoy: Holy Thursday & the Institution of the Eucharist and Why Does God Allow Suffering?

Why The Cross?

Lent is a time when the Cross is truly front and center, but how much do we really understand it?  What exactly did Jesus’ death accomplish and how?  Part of the reason some reject Christianity is because they misunderstand the Cross.  What they see is God punishing His innocent Son in place of us, and wonder how a God like that could be loving.  And if that’s what was actually happening, they would be right to turn away in disgust.  But this is NOT the Catholic view of the Cross.

Is the Cross an act of justice?  Yes, but it’s not a punishment.  The Cross is primarily an act of love and mercy – on the part of both the Father and the Son.

Justice Dispensed
After the Fall we lost our supernatural grace and we became inclined to sin.  Having sinned against an infinite God, an act of infinite love was required to make reparation.  But how were we, mere creatures, to make such an offering?  We couldn’t.  The only way a mere human could make such an act of infinite love was if He were a divine person.  So in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to redeem us (Galatians 4:4-5).  This doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t want to go and had to be “sent” by His Father.  God has one will, so the Father and Son have one divine will.  Jesus willed to die for us – this is why His suffering and dying on the Cross was an act of love infinitely pleasing to God – more pleasing than all of man’s sins combined!

And so justice was done as Jesus bore away our sins and made reparation.  But if Jesus’ Incarnation was only about justice, His death would not have been necessary.  One drop of His most precious blood offered on our behalf would’ve sufficed. So why the Cross?

Beyond Justice: Love and Mercy
Jesus died on the Cross because of His love for us.  The Trinity is about complete and total self-giving, sacrificial love.  Since God IS love, Jesus could not stop at anything less than to give Himself fully to us and for us.  Jesus, love itself, could give us nothing less than His life.  Confronted with our sin and our suffering, Jesus turned the Cross into a concrete, historical sign of God’s forgiveness and love.

More incredibly, by living a life of perfect obedience and love as both the Son of Man and the Son of God and then dying for us, Christ enabled us to share in His divine sonship.  This is so hugely important for us that we need to understand the connection!  Upon Jesus’ death, St. John noted in his gospel how the soldiers pierced Christ’s side, from which flowed blood and water (John 19:34).  Let us allow St. John Chrysostom to enlighten us:

I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit”, and from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church

And it is precisely the Church’s sacraments, in particular baptism and the Eucharist, that allow us to partake in the divine life!  Through baptism we become incorporated into Christ’s Body, and through the Eucharist we literally receive Christ’s Body.  It is through the sacraments that we are truly able to say “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).  We become, as St. Athanasius put it, sons in the Son.  And the ramifications of this go beyond our earthly life.  By partaking in Jesus’ divine sonship in eternity, we will be taken up into the Trinity!

Given all of this, it is love that we should see when we look at the Cross.  Jesus’ love was so great that He willingly suffered and died so that we might have a partial participation in the divine life while on earth, and then a full participation in Heaven!  May we kiss the Cross, and come to a deeper understanding of it as we pray, “we adore You O Christ, and we praise You, because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world!”

You may also be interested in: Why Does God Allow Suffering?

Turning To God Through Prayer, Fasting, and Alms-Giving

Lent is traditionally a time when we focus on prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  Why?  Because during this penitential season we are supposed to be turning away from sin and opening ourselves to Christ in new ways – and this is exactly what these three things help us do.

It’s not a coincidence that prayer, fasting and giving alms are potential remedies for the three types of sin John described: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes or pride of life (1 John 2:16).  Let’s see how they match up:

It’s never easy to become less attached to sin but we are all called to perfect: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).  Jesus was kind and gentle with sinners, but He was always firm and unflinching about sin itself.  He never lowered the bar for men even though they kept falling short.  Instead, He gave us the Holy Spirit, Who gives us the power to live according to the incredibly hard standard Jesus set.  He has given us the power to live in love, as sons and daughters of our heavenly Father!

As this Lent progresses, may we all fast more, give more alms, and pray more, so that we may sin less and love more.

Lent: A New Beginning

I don’t know about you, but I am so grateful Lent is here.  It’s a chance to start over – to refocus my life on Christ.  It’s also another chance to grow in my relationship with Christ, and more specifically, to grow in my imitation of Him.

It used to be that as the priest put ashes on our foreheads he would say “you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).  This was meant to remind us that we are all going to die one day, and that because of our sins we don’t deserve to be in Heaven with God.  But He has graciously offered us salvation through Christ in spite of that, so long as we repent.  Lent is a penitential season, which means it is a time to focus on the ways we fail to imitate Christ in our daily lives, repent, and mend our ways.  It’s meant to be a new beginning.

This is what Lenten sacrifices are all about – they’re intended to help us reform our fallen, disordered ways.  Ideally, we choose something that is spiritually good for us and we can incorporate into our lives beyond Lent.  So for instance we sacrifice our time and for Lent choose to go to daily Mass, or read the Bible or pray the Rosary each day.  Or we give up some vice (gossiping, telling fibs, etc.).  For most of us, doing something like that is going to be more beneficial than giving up candy or caffeine.

If we’re choosing to do some kind of fast, that’s great, so long as we remember why we’re doing it.  We’re supposed to be mortifying our bodies in one area, so that we will have better control over them in all areas of our lives.  In mastering our bodily desires and making them subservient to our spiritual desires, we restore the proper order to the relationship between the soul and the body (since it’s original sin that led the desires of the flesh to reign supreme).

Whatever you choose to do or give up for Lent, make it something meaningful for you.  I’m challenging myself to take a hard look at the areas where I’m struggling and tailor my Lenten sacrifices to those areas because I want this to be a memorable Lent. God is so good that He doesn’t just give us blessings in proportion to the sacrifices we make over Lent – He always gives us more than we deserve.  Yet there’s no question that the more we’re willing to give up for Him and the more room we make for Him in our lives, the more we’re going to grow in our love for Him.

I know this is going to be the most difficult Lent of my life, but that’s ok, because I also know that in the struggle God will transform me.  He wants to transform you too, so I can’t encourage you enough to challenge yourself this Lent!

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, NAB)

“And saying: Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, Douay-Rheims)

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