As we celebrate this Good Friday, we commemorate the singular event of our salvation, in the free offering of Jesus’ life on the Cross. As we venerate His Cross, let us also recall those in our midst who carry their own personal crosses each day.
Simon of Cyrene was forced to help Jesus to carry His Cross, when the soldiers recognized that without his help, Jesus might have died on the way to his Crucifixion. As we ponder the love that Jesus revealed in His death, Simon’s example invites us to reflect upon our response to those who suffer. More specifically, how often do you and I help those around us to carry the weight of their personal crosses? How many people do we know who are suffering today and will face their struggles alone, without any companionship, compassion or reassurance? How many times have we chosen to be like Simon of Cyrene, standing amidst the crowd and watching someone else’s misery and deciding to do nothing? How many times must our neighbor fall before we are ready to help him or her carry their cross?
The world will hear these questions and respond: I have my own problems to solve, my own struggles to face. How can I help carry someone else’s cross? However, what the world has not yet learned is that the simplest way to carry my own cross is by helping my neighbors to carry theirs. When we do so, we discover that the power of Christ’s love will give us the strength to carry both.
. . .
Each Holy Thursday, we celebrate the two great sacraments that our Lord instituted at the Last Supper, namely the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood. Each of us is invited to spend time in quiet prayer and to join the celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, contemplating the enormity and generosity of God’s love for you and me.
The depth of Christ’s love revealed this night is amplified even more by the treason and betrayal that surrounded Him. Consider for a moment that at the same table where the Lord Jesus gave us the gift of His Sacred Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in an act of intimate love for his apostles, these same men would soon be the ones who would run in fear when Jesus was betrayed. Peter would deny Him to His face when confronted in the courtyard of the High Priest. And Judas left even before the Eucharist was offered, because he chose the spiritual night rather than stay for the gift of Christ’s love.
It was on this holy night, despite the apostles’ impending abandonment of Him, that the Lord Jesus called them His “friends”- friends for whom He offered so great a gift and for whom He would freely die on Calvary to set free.
In a world that does not understand what true love means, I invite everyone to look to the upper room and learn!
. . .
As we prepare to stand before the Cross of Christ this Friday and contemplate the love that God has for each of us, how can we respond to such great love? Saint Gregory of Nazianzus reminds us, based on Mt. 25, that it is precisely by loving our neighbor:
“Do you think that love of neighbor is not a duty for you, but an option? That it is not a law, but a piece of advice? I also truly hoped so and was convinced of it. But I am terrified by the left hand of the Divine Judge, the goats, and his rebukes from his seat on the throne: they are judged and put on his left not because they stole, committed sacrilegious robberies or adulterous acts, or perpetrated some other forbidden act but because they did not care of Christ in those in need.
Therefore, if you wish to listen to me, O servant of Christ, let us visit Christ, care for Christ, feed Christ, clothe Christ, shelter Christ and honor Christ while we still have time: not just at table, like some; not with precious oil like Mary; not just with the tomb like Joseph of Arimathea, not with funeral ceremonies like Nicodemus, Christ’s half-friend..….But since the Lord asks everyone for works of mercy and not sacrifice…..we show him this by caring for those in need who lie prostrate on the ground this day.”
O Sacred Heart, surrounded by crown of piercing thorn.O Bleeding head, so wounded, reviled and put to scorn.Our sins have marred the glory of Thy most Holy Face,Yet angel hosts adore thee and tremble as they gaze. The Lord of every nation was hung upon a tree;His death was our salvation, our sins, His agony.O Jesus, by Thy Passion, thy Life in us increase;Thy death for us did fashion our pardon and our peace.