There is a tradition from the former Yugoslavia where a couple getting married bring a crucifix to the church. The priest says a special prayer of blessing
over the cross and when the wedding is over the couple bring the cross to their
new home and place it in a prominent position.
The idea is that they will come before the cross in their sufferings and
difficulties and ask Jesus to help them.
They will not run away from their problems, but face them and ask for
God’s help to work through them. And
most importantly, that Jesus Christ is at the center of their home. One of my sisters did this at her
wedding.
This is a big problem for us today,
because we are being constantly bombarded with the message that you shouldn’t
have to suffer, that you should have everything your way, that you shouldn’t have
to make sacrifices, even for your children.
This is the complete opposite of what Christ teaches us, which means we
have to decide who we are following. Am
I following the way of Jesus Christ, which is difficult but so worthwhile, or
am I following the way of the world, which tells me I can have everything I
want, but in fact is empty?
Moses said the same thing to the
people in his time after he had been given the Ten Commandments. He said, ‘choose today whom you wish to
follow. Choose life or death, blessing
or curse. Follow the Lord or not, but
make up your mind.’
In the book of Revelations, Jesus
uses very strong words. He says:
Here is the message of the Amen, the trustworthy, the
true witness… I know about your activities: how you are neither cold nor
hot. I wish you were one or the other,
but since you are neither hot nor cold, but only lukewarm, I will spit you out
of my mouth’ (Rev 3:14-16).
In another translation it says, ‘I
will vomit you out of my mouth.’ That is
very strong language. The Lord was not
afraid to shock us and he still isn’t.
He wants to make us wake up to reality.
Christianity is unusual in that it
does not try to run away from suffering, or to rise above it, in any way. Rather it teaches us that suffering is part
of the path that brings us to God. This
is something we have always found very difficult to understand. Two thousand years ago it was just as hard to
understand. Peter is horrified when
Jesus announces to them that he is going to suffer and be put to death and he
tries to talk Jesus out of it. He says, ‘Lord, this must not happen to
you. People won’t believe you, people
will turn away from you. You are to be
the King and all people will bow down to you.’
And Jesus said, ‘Get behind me Satan (enemy) for the way you think is
not God’s way, but man’s.’ Jesus was
saying to him, ‘You don’t understand this, but it has to be this way. If you want to follow me you will suffer
too.’ Suffering has its place, even
though it makes little sense to us.
When we suffer we often cry out to
God, ‘Why have you done this to me?’ I
shouldn’t have to suffer’. I used to
hear this all the time when I worked in the hospital. People say, ‘Fr. why has God done this to me,
what did I ever do wrong?’ as though this was a punishment. We forget the line from Scripture that says,
‘If anyone wants to follow me, let him renounce himself, take up his cross and
follow me.’ Does this mean that we
shouldn’t try to get rid of suffering?
Of course not. We should do
everything we can to help those who are suffering and to make our world a
better place, but we will never be fully rid of it, it is simply part of this
life.
Perhaps the most important thing is
the reason why the Lord asks us to
follow this path. It seems to be some
kind of a doorway we have to pass through, which helps to form us as people, and
which brings us closer to God. It is not
just suffering for the sake of suffering, which would be crazy. The death of Jesus led to his rising from
death and winning eternal life for all people.
That’s what we have to remember.
If we are allowed to suffer, it is because through it God will lead us
on to something much greater, although we may not see this until the next life.
We say we are Catholic, we are followers
of Christ? Do you have a crucifix in
your home? If you don’t maybe it’s time
you got one. By having a crucifix in
your home where people can see it, you are saying ‘I belong to Jesus
Christ’. I believe in what he has done
for me, Jesus Christ is Lord for me. We
have no reason to be ashamed of what we believe in.
Remember the words of the scriptures
where it says, one day ‘Every knee shall bow in heaven, on earth and under the
earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.’
‘Unless you take up your
cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.’
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