Jesus’ Call from the Cross

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the Cross and how painful it must have been for Jesus.  Not just physically, and not just because of the seeming separation He felt from His Father which made Him cry out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  But because of us.

I can’t imagine the pain of being on the Cross, knowing and suffering for each and every sin we would commit.  I can’t imagine the pain of being on that Cross, knowing how many of us would never come to accept Him as Savior.  I can’t imagine the pain of offering absolutely everything He could possibly offer for us, and still knowing it wouldn’t be enough to secure every person’s fiat.

Looking at a crucifix I never ceased to be amazed at how much He loves me and how little I love Him in return.  He has given everything for me, but somehow too often it still doesn’t feel like enough to me.  Love has perfectly poured out Himself in total self-gift and yet how often I am unable or unwilling to receive that love!

He not only gave His Body and Blood on the Cross, He continues to offer them to me each day in the Mass.  He not only merited all the grace the world could ever need on the Cross, He continues to offer it abundantly to me each second of every day.

Sometimes I can almost hear Him cry out, “What else can I do?  What else can I give that I have not already given?  What else will it take?!”  I can almost hear this plea every time I sin, every time I become more attached to the things of this world rather than the next, every time I settle for pale imitations of His love instead of the real thing.

The Cross is a constant reminder that He loves us and has given us, and continues to give us, everything we need to respond in kind.  Let us hear His call and give ourselves to Him more wholeheartedly, embrace His will more fully, and love more deeply.

Celebrating the Triumph of the Cross

Today the Church celebrates the Triumph or Exaltation of the Cross.  The Cross might seem like a strange thing to be focusing on, not only for our non-Catholic brethren but especially for non-Christians.  Who wants to glorify an instrument of torture?  Why do Catholics keep Christ on the Cross when instead the focus could be on the Resurrection?  Catholics are in good company – we glorify the Cross, and especially the Crucifix (where Jesus is on the Cross), as St. Paul did.  He writes, “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles…For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor 1:23, 25).

Crucifixion by Diego Velazquez

We venerate the Cross because the moment in which the Word Made Flesh seemed the weakest would become the moment when He was strongest.  Because though on the Cross it seemed like evil would triumph, the Cross was instead lifted up for the salvation of mankind.  But above all, we celebrate the Triumph of the Cross because it is the surest proof of God’s love for us.

As Fulton Sheen wrote, “Every other person who ever came into this world came into it to live.  [Jesus] came into it to die.”  God became man to die on the Cross, so that man might be redeemed and brought back into His fold.  Love is shown most in sacrifice, and nowhere was Christ’s sacrifice for us greater than on the Cross we exalt today.  Jesus loved us most on the Cross, so how can we not love Him most on the Cross?

I think it’s also important to remember the Cross because we all have of our crosses to bear.  Jesus is risen from the dead, but the world is still filled with pain and suffering, with trials and tests.  Focusing on the example set by Jesus carrying His Cross can help us to carry our own.  Since He carried His Cross for us, we can surely carry our cross (which is so much lighter!) for Him.  Today also serves as a reminder that we do not carry our crosses alone.  Jesus both carried His Cross for us then and continues to help us carry our crosses now.

We should spend some time every day meditating on the Cross, but especially today!!  We adore You oh Christ and we praise You, because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

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?

True Thankfulness on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is of course a time to count our blessings and give thanks for what we are most grateful for, and I hope you all did!  I was reading about the apparitions of Our Lady of All Nations and something Mary said really struck me.  She was noting the importance of the crucifix and warned: “They [the world] wants to change that cross into other shapes!”  And it got me thinking: how many of us really truly grateful for the Cross?  Or more directly: am I truly grateful for the Cross?  And not just Jesus’, but the one I must carry as well?

My family has the tradition of going around the table and saying what we’re most thankful for, but Thanksgiving is really a reminder that I am to be grateful for everything: the good and the seemingly bad both.  It’s a reminder that even though I won’t always feel grateful for everything, I still must choose to be grateful for everything.  The only way to fully follow Jesus is to submit my will to His will, and to trust that everything He allows, He allows for a reason.  To remember that any cross He asks me to carry, He asks me to carry out of love.

It’s been said that if anyone looks at the Cross and sees anything other than love, he has completely missed the point.  And I definitely think that’s true of our own crosses as well.  Many different things come into play at the foot of all crosses – but primarily they’re about love.  And how could we do anything other than rejoice over God’s great love?  Let us never fail to be grateful for His Cross and ours as well – especially this Thanksgiving!