Preparatory Prayer: Mary, fount of love's devotion, let me share with true emotion all the sorrow you endured. Savior, when my life shall leave me, through your mother's prayers receive me, with the fruits of victory.

 

Gospel Passage: Mark 10:33-34

 

"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise."

 

Introduction: Rich or poor, young or old, atheist or believer, everyone faces the cross. No matter how hard we try, we cannot eliminate it from our lives. But Christ made the cross the instrument of salvation. Not only did he give the Blessed Mother a privileged place at Calvary, but he invites us to take up our cross daily. This meditation reminds us of the spiritual meaning of the cross, to help us embrace and bear it with joy.

 

1. Why the Cross?

 

"Why my cross?" is the painful question in the face of suffering. It is a good question; it can be an excellent prayer. The fact that it is a question means that I must address it to someone. Whom shall I ask for an answer, God or the world?

The world will not be able to give me an answer. It tries to eliminate suffering, but cannot explain it. It does everything possible to rid itself of suffering, but cannot eradicate its cause: sin. 

Things make sense to us when we know their causes. Erase the concept of sin and we become clueless about suffering: because the world cannot answer the question "Why my cross?" I must put my dilemma before God. But I must ask not the gods of the Greeks, those mythical gods aloof to any concerns of mere humans. I must ask the God who loves and who suffers, the God of Jesus Christ who allowed his Only Son to be crucified and put to death. Only he can give us an answer.

"It is true that today unfortunately the cross is disappearing before our very eyes. It is gone from the houses of the living and the graves of the dead; most of all it is gone from the hearts of many people who are troubled to look at a dead man nailed to a cross. Nevertheless, we cannot remove the Cross from our Christian life and Christian apostolate. To be a Christian, yesterday, today and tomorrow we have to embrace Christ's Cross with our hearts, and make it our own, very much our own, for in the Cross is our salvation." (Marcial Maciel, LC)

 

2. Christ suffered in place of me and for me

 

Christ's teachings on suffering are paradoxical. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the afflicted, those who hunger and thirst for justice. Blessed are those who are persecuted; when they are insulted and slandered all for his sake. This is the narrow gate, the road that leads to life. Enter it. Since the road that leads to perdition is wide and spacious, many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:14)

"The cross, the joy of suffering, death's victory, the fruitfulness of suffering, finding by loosing, the grain buried in the earth... these are all paths that give life. Hard, sterile paths for our human mind and logic if Christ had not walked them first." (Marcial Maciel LC, September 3, 1975)

"Christ drew close to the world of human suffering by taking this suffering upon his very self. In his public life not only did he experience fatigue, homelessness, the misunderstanding even of those closest to him, but especially he was progressively ostracized and encircled by increasing hostility and conniving to put him to death. Christ knows what is happening and often speaks to his disciples of the sufferings and death that await him. Christ goes towards his passion and death fully aware of the mission he has to fulfill precisely in this manner. Precisely by his suffering is he to bring it about 'that man should not perish, but have eternal life.' Precisely by his cross is he to accomplish the work of salvation. This work, in the plan of eternal Love, has a redemptive character... Christ goes out to suffer knowing its saving power; he goes forward in obedience to the Father, but primarily he is united to the Father in the love with which he has loved the world and man in the world. That is why St. Paul will write of Christ: 'he loved me and gave himself for me.'" (JP II, Salvifici Doloris, #16) 

"We cannot, therefore, leave the cross out of our Christian lives. Moreover, we must place it at the center of our Christianity to the point of exclaiming with St. Paul; "My only glory is in the Cross of Jesus Christ through whom the world is crucified for me and I for the world." (Galatians 6:14). The cross can then become the symbol of our whole life where our joys meet our sorrows, our surrender meets love, our life meets resurrection, and our present life meets our life to come. (Marcial Maciel, LC)

 

3. A new perspective

 

"It's not fair!" We always seem to link suffering with injustice. The fact that many sufferings are brought on by injustice makes our pain all the more excruciating. This is our narrow vision of suffering when viewed through the prism of justice. But Christ told us that he would draw all men to himself when lifted up on the cross, and our view of suffering quickly changes when we look upon the Crucified One! We no longer search for its meaning in terms of justice; rather, our perspective of suffering is opened up to the dimensions of redemption and salvific love.

"True, we must give our lives. We have to fall in the ground and die so as to live and bear fruit. But this Gospel law is hard only for the worldly, those looking in from the outside. If you get involved, if you live fully this attitude, you will discover that if the first part is true, the second is no less so: bounty, fruit, fulfillment, life." (Marcial Maciel LC, May 9, 1981)

" ... But suffering is a sign of special love. How fruitful it is and how the world needs to embrace it willingly ... Raise up your grief-stricken soul to him with spiritual joy, to the King who has the right to ask every sacrifice of us. Raise it as an offering and tread life's difficult, uphill path in a way that will give him joy and set an example for those around you. Let the pain you feel most deeply and personally come from seeing that he does not yet reign in the world... and that with all his love he has not even conquered every corner of our own Christian life." (Marcial Maciel, LC)

 

Questionnaire:

 

To help you to examine your life, in the light of what God has put in your heart in these moments you gave him in prayer.

 

1. Where do I search for the meaning of my crosses?

 

2. Am I afraid of suffering? Do I bring my suffering to God? 

 

3. Have I ever thought of "offering up sacrifices"? What do I offer them up for? 

 

4. What connection do I see between sacrifice and vocation, sacrifice and redemption?