Photograph – A picture that I took of a Celtic cross in the cemetery of Drumcliff, County Sligo, Ireland.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)
The cross is the central gathering place for we who call ourselves Christian. The first symbolic gesture in Roman Catholic baptism is the tracing of the cross on the forehead of the one to be baptized. Just yesterday, many people had the cross signed on their foreheads with ashes.
The cross is the penultimate paradox as Paul expresses so clearly in his first letter the Corinthinians. “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:18, 21-25)
It is an error as we gather at the foot of the cross, to perceive the cross as the end point of Christian life. As we gaze upon the cross, we must look through it to that which lies beyond the cross, which is eternal life. The cross, as it were, is nothing but a thin veil, through which we can see eternal Life. The carrying of our crosses is to pass through this veil to the Life which awaits us. It was through the carrying of his cross that Jesus journeyed ultimately to the Resurrection. It is the pathway to the Resurrection and Life with God for us as well.
When we pick up our cross, in whatever form that cross may take, Jesus reminds us that we do not do so in isolation. Rather, as we carry our cross, he who first carried the cross, knowing firsthand its weight, assists us in our burden, helping us to carry our cross when we feel crushed by its weight. Jesus will not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by it, but rather will carry us and our cross into the Resurrection.
As St. Paul writes, “Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.” (Romans 6:3-5)
