The Cross

I used to write stories as a young girl. Actually, I wrote a small romance novel as a freshman in high school. However, a new story came in to my mind and heart after I wrote my first novel which eliminated all other desires to write fiction.

It was a story about a little girl walking beside Jesus at the Passion.

I only got to the point where Veronica ran up to Jesus with a washcloth because my heart could barely handle the story.

Nothing else matters when we encounter The Cross.

Nothing.

On The Cross, Jesus did not just take away the sins in some sort of subtraction, some version of a deletion mutation. No. On the Cross, our Jesus picked up every human suffering, every human need, and He took it with Him to Hell and redeemed it in Heaven. The Cross is not just this symbol that we can toss around like a label.

Christians are marked by The Sign of The Cross.

And that means something.

It means that we are called to suffer like Christ.

So many of us take that statement to mean that we are called to suffer because Christ had to suffer. We write off suffering as a piece of the Christian life, something that “just happens.” Dear Reader, The Cross did not “just happen” to Jesus. He chose The Cross. He chose to suffer. He chose to die. Not so that His act could be public, but so that He could give everything He had for us. He chose to love us in the most painful way possible at the time.

Jesus chose The Cross out of love.

And as we draw nearer to Him, we start to feel the weight of The Cross on our hearts.

It’s what we choose to do with our small insignificant share in The Cross that changes our hearts, that has a purpose. Suffering was not a part of God’s plan for His Creation, but because of sin and evil hearts, we are subject to suffering. Sometimes that suffering can be removed from our lives by turning to a life of holiness. Other times our suffering only increases as our faith increases.

Think of the Saints who received the wounds of Jesus Christ. They lived the holiest of lives outside of the Blessed Mother, and yet they felt the great pains of our Lord and Savior.

Think of the Saints like Mother Teresa and Therese, Saints of the greatest love, who felt darkness and could no longer feel God’s presence in their hearts.

Our suffering is not a sign of our wrongdoing in the moment.

The Cross is a gift.

I do not mean to say that we should be filled with joy at the sight of suffering. If anything, I would say that we need to fully experience the suffering that we are given. Feel the sorrow, feel the hurt, feel the loneliness, but then we must make a choice. We must do what our Jesus calls us to do and follow Him.

The only response to The Cross is Love.

Not for ourselves, but for those who are in need of the love of Jesus Christ.

Our suffering, though small, allows us to gain some insight in to what our Jesus saw in our hearts on Good Friday. Our loneliness allows us to feel the loneliness Our Lord carried in to Hell. Our sorrow allows us to feel the sorrow Our Lord felt for His Mother as she recognized His pain. Our emptiness allows us to feel the blood draining out of Christ’s Crown of Thorns.

The Cross is a gift.

It is a gift to those who will share in our cross.

Jesus gives us the gift of sharing in His Passion so that we might understand but a piece of His love for us. When we choose to allow that insight in to His suffering to change the way we love others, we allow Christ’s most Sacred Heart to love on the souls who need it most.

My cross is a sense of not belonging, of loving so imperfectly that no one will ever truly love me in return. And yet, it is that very cross which teaches me how to love those who believe that God could never love them.

My Jesus gave me this cross so that others might find hope in Him again.

They will forget me, but they will remember Christ.

The Cross is not just a gift for those of us who suffer, but it is also a gift to those around us. You see, we were never meant to bear the weight on our own. Jesus already carried it all so that we might be one in Him again.

We do not always hear what Jesus prayed for…but we have an account that is beautiful, one that explains just how beautiful our crosses are for the world.

“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.' 

'And I have given them the glory You gave me, so that they may be one, as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that You sent Me, and that You loved them even as You loved Me.'

'Father, they are Your gift to Me. I wish that where I am they also may be with Me, that they may see My glory that You gave Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

~John 17: 20-24

We are God the Father’s gift to His Beloved Son.

You are a gift to Jesus on The Cross.

Jesus’ glory is revealed in His passion, death, and resurrection. In His prayer, our Jesus says that He is giving us the same glory that God the Father bestowed upon His beloved Son. He is allowing us to be with Him on The Cross so that we might better understand how much love God has for us, for all of the world.

Jesus chose to allow others to share His Cross.

The Cross is for the world.

My Dear Reader, when you allow others to hold your cross, you are not giving them a burden they do not deserve. The only response to the Cross is love, and therefore causing that person to choose love. By choosing love, however much, they encounter a piece of God in their heart, meant for you. The one who shares The Cross is given a great gift, one they do not deserve but are blessed to have anyways.

No matter how little the love is in their heart, it is a far greater gift they could ever fully comprehend.

For in the heart of the soul loving those suffering under the weight of their cross is the love of Jesus Christ. They find Him, and they share in His love for you….for the whole world.

Suffering was never meant to be there in the first place, but by His blood, our Jesus redeemed our pain for the sake of the world. Where there was darkness, now there is light. Where there was anger, now there is peace. Where there is sorrow, now there is dancing.

It is not a joyful experience to hold a cross, whether your own or that of another.

But through the Cross comes new life…a life completed in love.

I have two little gifts to give now.

These are two little notes: the first to those who aided me in carrying my cross and the second to those whose cross I’ve shared. May these notes serve as a prayer for my Dear Readers, for all of you have in some way helped me carry my cross.

To those who aided me on my journey:

By saying yes to the Cross, I chose love, but I did not know what would happen. I did not choose you; Jesus chose you. My cross does not bring me joy, nor do I wish for others to feel my pain, but the love of others is the greatest gift that I could imagine. Because of your love, I know two things: 1. That Christ loves us all. 2. That the love you receive will go out to the world. Even if you are unaware of the times you held a cross, you will receive graces. I know that your love will go out to others because you loved me. You did not have to love me, and yet you chose love. Thank you. Thank you for revealing Christ in the world.

Always in Him,

Felicity

To those whose crosses I bear:

I love you. These three words are but a small portion of what I feel in response to the graces I have received from praying for you. Although I was unworthy to share the weight of your heart, you entrusted a portion of your cross to me. As I prayed for you, as I performed little acts of love for you, as I loved on you, I saw Christ in you. Your broken heart is not a sign that you do not have love, but rather your heart bursts with love, a love that no human heart can understand. Yet as I love you in your cross, I come to learn more and more of this mysterious love which allows others to see our weakness. It is an enduring love, a love that aches for more, but it never wounds me. Thank you for loving me as Christ loves me in His Cross. I pray that you might always remember His great love for you, a love we do not deserve yet He freely gives.

Always in Him,

The Rose of the Cross