The Cross: Suffering & Love
On Fridays throughout the year, but especially on the Fridays during the holy season of Lent, many Christians will give special devotion and reverence to the cross. Many will give up meat or choose to offer some other fast as a way of uniting to the thirst and suffering of Jesus as He stretched out His arms on the cross for the salvation of the world. Yes, the Resurrection is important, and Sundays commemorate this salvific event, but we cannot rush to the Resurrection without going through the cross. The cross - the object we see throughout our homes, on necklaces or bracelets, and in our churches. The very cross that we make on our bodies as Catholics as we begin and end our prayers in order to remind ourselves who we are. The cross is an instrument to remind us we are Christians.
But out of any symbol in our rich faith tradition, why did the early Christians choose the cross to represent their faith? As we know, the cross originally was an instrument of torture and of execution that was commonly used for criminals. So why did they choose the cross?
The cross - some of you have experienced it deeply in your lives. The cross of losing a loved one, of living with a great illness, struggling with an addiction, the agony of a broken family, loneliness, or even the tension that comes from being a finite human person and not being in control. And whether in our past, today or whatever may come in the future, our crosses come in all different sizes and weights, some heavier, some lighter, all of them crosses, all of them instruments of suffering.
So once again, we may ask ourselves why did the early Christians choose an instrument of suffering for the symbol to represent our faith?
As we know, our crosses in our churches and in our homes are usually not empty, many times they have a body on them, a person on them, they are not only crosses but crucifixes, in which the Son of God, Jesus Christ, hangs upon for the world to see. As St. Paul reminds us, “we proclaim Christ crucified.” (1 Cor. 1:23) Christianity lifts high and gives honor to the instrument of suffering that led to the death of our God. A death in which time stood still and the world was changed forever. A death that freed us from the chains of sin and gifted us our salvation. Jesus Christ’s suffering and death on a cross, transformed the cross from an instrument of suffering to an instrument of love.
And when we unite our crosses and sufferings with that of Jesus’ on the cross, then He also gives us the power to transform our crosses from instruments of suffering to instruments of love. The cross for the early Christians, many of whom were also crucified and gave up their lives for their faith, chose the cross as the sign for Christianity because they knew the power of the cross as a sign of love. A sign of Jesus’ love for God the Father, as He was obedient even unto death, death on a cross. But also, as a sign of love for you, and for me. It was not the nails that kept Jesus on the cross, it was His love.
So when Jesus tells His disciples, as He tells you and I today, to pick up our crosses and follow Him, He is inviting us into this great mystery of our baptism and our very identity as Christians. This mystery that if we die with Christ, then we will rise with Him in the Resurrection. If we unite our cross, our sufferings with Christ, He will transform them into great love. And the greater the cross, and the greater the suffering, the greater opportunity for a profound love. To the world this seems absurd, but with eyes of faith, it changes everything.
On Fridays, in a special way we commemorate and lift high the cross of Jesus Christ, the cross of Christianity, the cross that reminds us who we are. An instrument of suffering, transformed into an instrument of love.