Lifting High the Cross

One summer my sister and I decided to tour Washington National Cathedral in D.C., a stupendous Episcopal church and, as it happens, dedicated to the honor of Sts. Peter and Paul. We drove around, looking for a parking space. Finally spying one, I offered to stand guard over it while she inched up alongside the car in front, preparing to parallel park.

Good move. As I planted myself possessively over our precious find, a mini-van halted directly behind her and in front of me. The passenger window slid open, and the driver called out, “That’s our space; we got here first!” “I’m sorry,” I pointed out, “we are in front of you.” “But we had our blinker on,” she barked.” We did too. I shook my head and stood my ground. She sputtered, “And you call yourself a Christian!” That was low. I snapped back, “‘Christian’ does not equal ‘doormat’!” She left.

Jesus did not allow himself to be bested when the integrity of his message was at stake. A Temple, moneychangers, and a whip come to mind. There came a time, though, when losing himself out of love was his message. He had already “emptied himself” by becoming human; then he “humbled himself, becoming obedient to death” (Phil. 2:6-7). His faithfulness to the truth of his identity and his mission led him to choose death, on a cross no less, and by doing so, save the world.

I’m afraid to be vulnerable. It leaves me open to possible abuse and exploitation. Even with an infinitely good God, it makes me feel powerless. That’s why I need the cross of Christ. I need a reminder of where vulnerability will surely take me and of the fact that it was a God, my God, who went there before me…and lives to tell the tale. This is where the Good News becomes Great News. He didn’t stop being vulnerable when he rose from the dead (think Eucharist), but his openness became undying life.

As for Christ, so for Christians. If the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, that Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies, also (See Rom. 8:11). As we celebrated the Exaltation of the Cross a few days ago, we were reminded that the cross is triumphant because of the Resurrection, and it triumphs in those who believe: “This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith” (1Jn. 5:4).

Elizabeth Scalia ("The Anchoress") reports that one day she made a decision to pray the Apostles’ Creed “mindfully” every day. “A remarkable thing happened,” she wrote. “I could feel my connection to Christ Jesus and His church strengthening. With my every assent I realized I was connecting with, and conforming to, God’s giant and ongoing “YES,” which formed and sustains all of creation.” This kind of "yes" gave wings also to journalist James Foley. Commenting on his Libyan captivity in Tripoli, he wrote in the Marquette Magazine: “If nothing else, prayer was the glue that enabled my freedom, an inner freedom first and later the miracle of being released….”

“No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily” (Jn. 10:18). This is said in a unique way about the God-Man, but also in an ordinary sort of way about each of us. Could my sister and I have relinquished that coveted parking spot? Of course. Did the other driver need to hear what Christianity is and is not? Yes. It was unjust for her to demand—and in the name of Christ—what we had a right to. Likewise, for us to give it up out of coercion, even in the name of Christ, would have been dysfunctional. Only freedom makes love possible. Paul wrote that Christ was his law (See 1Cor. 9:21). So, love leads me to imitate Jesus Christ, not just conform to a law. My course of action may be the same. My decision will be made, however, not out of indignation, but in love.

M. Thecla once encouraged the Daughters of St. Paul at the Queen of Apostles Clinic, saying:

M. Thecla with Fr. Alberione & FSP, Albano, 1959

“To love God is to do his will, and to do the will of God and love God is sanctity. In these days, at the end of the Divine Office, this antiphon is always sung: ‘The Lord Jesus was obedient unto death and to death on a cross’ (cf. Phil. 2:8). And for this obedience ‘God…gave him the name which is above all other names… (Phil. 2:9). Behold the obedience of Jesus! Let us follow Jesus!

“May we have this holy ambition of ascending high in heaven, right there where we hope they’ve written our names. We have sought only the Lord. And we continue to seek him, even if we sometimes deviate a little. Let’s go straight ahead, seeking the Lord, his will, sanctity and the love of God” (April 1, 1961).

How do you feel drawn to exalt the cross of Christ in your “ordinary sort of way”?
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Margaret J. Obrovac, FSP, originally from San Francisco, has been a Pauline evangelizer since 1973 and has worked in various phases of the mission of the Daughters of St. Paul. Since attending the nine-month Charism Course in Rome in 2012-2013, she is now based in Boston, where she serves on the provincial Cooperator Team in the area of ongoing formation.

Planting the Tree of the Cross

Pilot Printing. Used
with permission.

In the array of religious symbols, few are as ambivalent as the cross. Within a few centuries after Christ, a horrifying method of Roman capital punishment became the universal symbol of Christianity and permeates Western society. Although a growing respect for religious pluralism in our nation allows us to make room for other expressions of faith, American cultural instinct still assigns to the cross its most poignant memorial.

So when did the greatest hope of the human race once again come to mean primarily suffering and shame? We’ve all heard it and have probably said it: “What a cross…he carries (…she is…that would be)!” This aspect of it can’t be denied. In fact, Jesus made carrying the cross daily a requirement of discipleship (cf. Mt. 16:24). But why? Is it because of the suffering it entails, or the salvation?

Today’s feast of the Exaltation of the Cross comes down on the side of salvation. Jesus’ self-emptying in the Incarnation and later on the cross is his supreme act of love for the Father, who sent him to save the world. St. Alphonsus de Liguori declared that “love, not nails, fastened Jesus to the cross.” Jesus himself said, “I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (Jn. 10:18). While the cross is no picnic, the message of the Gospel and of this day is that Jesus’ love for the Father and for us, which led him to the cross, released the stranglehold of sin and death, triumphed in the resurrection, and so, by the Holy Spirit, guaranteed undying life for everyone and everything human. No wonder the author of the book of Revelation could cry out in Christ’s name to a hunted, martyred Church, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer….Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (2:10).

Using a vivid image, contemporary theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar says that Jesus “exploded” sin from within. When I read that recently I couldn’t help thinking of…Harry Potter. Pursued by Valdemort, his nemesis, Harry made it his mission to find and destroy every “horcrux” that contained a piece of Valdemort’s soul (OK, so the theology skips a beat here) to put an end to the death and grief caused by Valdemort’s ambition. Although he didn’t realize it, Harry himself was the last “horcrux.” Valdemort mistakenly believed that if he could overcome Harry, he would be invested with unconquerable life. A matured Harry gave himself into Valdemort’s power in order to save his friends and in dying, became the evil lord’s undoing.

Whether we talk about wars or the petty rivalries in the workplace and the home, human struggles aim for a winner-take-all conquest. This may come as a surprise, but the sacrifice of Jesus did, too. The only difference is that God in Jesus triumphed not over human beings, but over what makes us less human—sin and death. He “made captivity itself a captive” (Eph. 4:8).

The way that that comes to us? Forgiveness. The cross is not only the sign that God reconciled us with himself. It is the act of reconciliation; it brought about that reunification with God and made unity with one another possible. Ever since then, the two aspects of suffering and salvation have always worked in tandem. Jesus planted the tree of the cross on Calvary, watered by the Holy Spirit and his own blood and tended by the Church in the sacrament of Reconciliation. Not surprisingly, the process doesn’t stop there, but out the confessional door, making us ambassadors of reconciliation (cf. 2Cor. 5:16-21).

Oh if ever there was an intersection of suffering and salvation in our relationships it’s in forgiveness! The cross attests that evil inflicts a gaping wound in our hearts that only forgiveness can heal. “Anything but that!” we protest, and so we cast about looking for something or someone else to do the job. Instead, forgiveness is a gift we give to ourselves. It doesn’t necessarily change the one we resent, but allows something life-giving to take its place in us, so that we’re no longer burdened by the other person we can’t change.

Indignation and a desire for revenge would not have been enough to fuel the compassion of millions of people we saw, read about, or heard about on 9/11 and in its aftermath. Only a need to give senselessness some meaning, a meaning springing from love. One reader of this blog e-mailed me after the post of May 4, 2011, that commented on the assassination of Osama bin Laden. He wrote:

“Even though the event of 911 was horrific, we should not forget the outpouring of charity, altruism and love for neighbor that overshadowed the evil in the days and months after 911. It’s hard to stay angry, unless you really want to - and love (NOT time) heals all wounds, if we let it” (Kurtis D. Welton).

St. Paul would say: “Where sin increased, grace increased even more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so too would grace reign in reconciliation leading to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:20-21).

Thoughts to help us in the process, from Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach, (which, this week, ranks #16 in Amazon.com’s top 100 Christian best sellers). Go to Embrace Forgiveness on Facebook to read stories, post a question,  and interact with the author, Fr. Scott Hurd:

“‘Forgive and forget’ may sound noble. Unfortunately, it’s just not realistic….Our minds don’t come equipped with a delete button…. Forgiveness may not require forgetting, but it does require letting go.” 

 “‘I would often tell people that the only thing worse than a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart’” (Steven McDonald, NYPD, after forgiving the teen who shot and paralyzed him).

“Guilt does not have to paralyze us. Instead, it can provide the energy that spurs us into action, leading us to seek forgiveness….Simply put, people who know they’re forgiven are much more likely to be people who forgive.”

“God wants to forgive us more than we could ever want to sin….He’s dying to forgive us—which is exactly what he has already done!”

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