Encountering the Cross

 Each of us will face challenges in life. This can often confront us with the reality of suffering and sin. We can start to ponder what has caused these events to occur and what remedies will lift this cross from our shoulders. Sometimes what we struggle with is the bad choices that we make in life, and how we tend to believe that the world revolves around us. This can especially narrow our perspective on things to what influences those choices and how we need to change our lives. It can tend to shut out other people and even shut out God. How can I be transformed in these moments?

Part of the mystery of the Cross is how we seek to live it out in the midst of our own suffering and sin. We often see the cause of our suffering as something to be eliminated from life. This can be especially prevalent when we seek out a priest for confession. We can often notice what burdens our hearts and what seems like a deadweight in our lives. We seek to confess our sin and change our lives, but we are usually drawn back to those short-term fixes that take away some of the pain. Yet we also notice how we can become addicted to these remedies that often seem hollow and counterfeit. We are called to confess our sins, not to create extra burdens, but to discover how God meets us in our struggles. This is also linked to our celebration of the anointing of the sick; God meets us in that suffering, not to condemn us but to share our burden. Thus, our lives are not called to be lived in frustration and despair but to discover how God meets us even in our darkest night.

I believe this is where the feast of the Triumph of the Cross helps us to encounter God. In the midst of the suffering, we discover a God who is willing to give everything for our good. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus notices this meeting of what it means to be fully human and fully divine. It is not by walking away from suffering, but instead by allowing us to meet God in a rawness that reveals the reality of how deeply we are loved. This is not just calling us to a stoic resolve or a fatalistic resignation to the truth of sin and suffering. Rather, it seeks to notice how God does not abandon us at these moments. He became incarnate for us not because of us. This helps us to acknowledge that we are accompanied, especially at times of our greatest need.

As a Church community, we acknowledge how we seek to be people of justice and mercy. This is especially true when we seek to become communities that safeguard our most vulnerable, who can be so burdened by the reality of the sins of others and the suffering that they continue to endure. The fact that this feast is also commemorated as Safeguarding Sunday acknowledges that we can not take the Cross for granted. We learn ways not only to build communities that care for the sick and suffering but also seek to be places that heal and reconcile the darkness that can so easily affect our lives. In entering into the mystery of the Cross, we strive to be people who discover that our lives meet a God who sacrifices everything for our good so that we can find the reality of compassion. A God who does not abandon us to suffer or feel powerless against the cause of the suffering. We can be seen even when we feel lost, resurrected even when we feel close to death, and to discover that it is in our wounds that we are healed by Christ.