Today let us look at our cross, acknowledge our cross, embrace our cross, and let our cross, whatever it might be, give us hope and life.
The writer James Martin gives us some helpful directives for “how to handle” our cross, the cross we must all receive as followers of Jesus who said, “Take up your cross daily” and “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
“You don’t need to look for your crosses” Life always gives them to you. Whether it is a serious illness, the death of a loved one, a difficult relationship with a family member or a friend or colleague, serious financial concerns, a lengthy illness, problems in school or a job-related confrontation --- problems come! The real cross is the one that you really don’t want. If it were not, it would not be a cross.
“We are invited by God, as His Son Jesus was, to accept our crosses” We don’t have to look too far around us to realize that everyone – yes, everyone bears a cross. No one wears a billboard or a neon sign proclaiming, “look at my cross” (although some people do like to talk a lot about it!) --- But be assured it is there. It is a part of our DNA is human beings. It “comes with the territory.” How the apostles struggled with this. You, Jesus, have to suffer and die? No way! We will never let that happen to you. And we often have trouble with this too. The hardest part of our cross is not having such bitterness that everyone else knows about it. We can certainly ask others to help us bear the cross. Jesus let Simon the Cyrenian help him with his. Christ did not lash out in anger against people when he was suffering even when being whipped. There is a difference between “passing on suffering and sharing it. Our cross shouldn’t become someone else’s cross.
We have all come at one point or another in our lives, under the burden of our crosses, to the point where we say there is no hope. Nothing can change. And then we are in despair, sometimes a kind of reflection of pride. We might even say, “Not even God has the power to change this situation.” This is why the cross must always be seen in the light of the resurrection. The disciples, after Jesus had died, cowered in a room behind closed doors. We are called to emerge from that place where we sit in fear, and to believe what Mary Magdalene believed with all her heart; He is risen.
God bless! Have a wonderful week! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!