{"id":31215,"date":"2017-09-15T20:20:10","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T00:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=31215"},"modified":"2017-09-17T20:52:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T00:52:01","slug":"understanding-the-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/understanding-the-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Cross","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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MEMORIAL OF OUR LADY OF SORROWS<\/p>\n

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“OFFER<\/strong> it up.” It’s the most common Catholic answer we give to others who are suffering. There is truth and reason as to why we say it, but do we really<\/em> understand what we mean? Do we really know the power of suffering\u00a0in\u00a0<\/em>Christ? Do we really “get” the Cross?<\/p>\n

Many of us are\u00a0Afraid of the Call<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>afraid of Going\u00a0Into the Deep<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>because we feel that Christianity is ultimately a masochistic spirituality where we forego any of the pleasures of life, and simply, suffer. But the truth is, whether you are a Christian or not, you’re going to suffer in this life. Sickness, misfortune, disappointment, death… it comes to everyone. But what Jesus actually does, through the Cross, is turn all of this into a glorious victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In the cross lies Love’s victory… In it, finally, lies the full truth about man, man’s true stature, his wretchedness and his grandeur, his worth and the price paid for him.<\/strong> \u2014Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (ST. JOHN PAUL II) from\u00a0Sign of Contradiction,\u00a0<\/em>1979 p. ?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Allow me, then, to break down that sentence so that we can hopefully grasp the value and true power in embracing our suffering.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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THE FULL TRUTH ABOUT MAN<\/p>\n

I.\u00a0“man’s true stature… his worth”<\/span><\/p>\n

The first and most essential truth of the Cross is that you are loved.\u00a0<\/em>Someone\u00a0has actually died for love of you, personally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Precisely by contemplating the precious blood of Christ, the sign of his self-giving love <\/strong>(cf. Jn 13:1), the believer learns to recognize and appreciate the almost divine dignity of every human being and can exclaim with ever renewed and grateful wonder: ‘How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he gained so great a Redeemer’<\/strong>\u00a0and if God ‘gave his only Son’ in order that man ‘should not perish but have eternal life’!”<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014ST. POPE JOHN PAUL II,\u00a0Evangelium Vitae<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>n. 25<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Our worth lies in the truth that we are made in God’s image. Each of us, body, soul, and spirit, is a reflection of the Creator Himself. This “divine dignity” is what not only triggered Satan’s envy and hatred toward the human race, but what ultimately led the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to conspire to so great an act of love for fallen humanity. As Jesus said to St. Faustina,\u00a0<\/p>\n

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If My death has not convinced you of My love, what will? <\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u2014Jesus to St. Faustina,\u00a0Divine Mercy in My Soul<\/em>, Diary, n. 580<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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II. \u00a0“his wretchedness… and the price paid for him”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cross reveals not only man’s worth, but the extent of his wretchedness, that is, the seriousness<\/em> of sin. Sin had two lingering effects. The first is that it destroyed the purity of our souls such that it immediately broke the capacity for spiritual communion with God, who is all-holy. Second, sin\u2014which is a disruption of the order and laws that govern the soul and the universe\u2014introduced death and chaos into creation. Tell me: what man or woman, to this very day, can restore the state of holiness of his or her soul on their own? Moreover, who can stop the march of death and decay that man has unleashed upon himself and universe? Only grace can do this, only the power of God.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God… (Eph 2:8)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Thus, when we look upon the Cross, not only do we see God’s love for us, but the cost\u00a0<\/em>of our rebellion. The cost is precisely because, if we are created with a “divine dignity”, then only the Divine<\/em> can restore that fallen dignity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For if by that one person\u2019s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many. (Rom 5:15)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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III. “his grandeur”<\/span><\/p>\n

And now we come to the most amazing aspect of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross: it was not only a gift to save us, but an invitation to participate in the salvation of others. Such is the grandeur of the sons and daughters of God.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light… Christ… fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.<\/strong><\/span> \u2014Gaudium et Spes<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Vatican II, n. 22<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Herein lies the “Catholic” understanding of suffering: Jesus did not eliminate it through the Cross, but showed how human suffering becomes a pathway to eternal life and the ultimate expression of love. Nonetheless,\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Christ achieved the Redemption completely and to the very limits but at the same time he did not bring it to a close…. it seems to be part\u00a0of the very essence of Christ’s redemptive suffering\u00a0that this suffering requires to be unceasingly completed.\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>\u2014ST. POPE JOHN PAUL II, Salvifici Doloros<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0n. 3, vatican.va<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But how can it be completed if He has already ascended to Heaven? St. Paul answers:<\/p>\n

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I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church… (Col 1:24)<\/span><\/p>\n

For the mysteries of Jesus are not yet completely perfected and fulfilled. They are complete, indeed, in the person of Jesus, but not in us, who are his members, nor in the Church, which is his mystical body.<\/b>\u00a0\u2014St. John Eudes, treatise \u201cOn the Kingdom of Jesus\u201d,\u00a0Liturgy of the Hours<\/i>, Vol IV, p 559<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What Jesus\u00a0alone<\/em> could do is merit<\/em> for all mankind the graces and forgiveness that would make us capable of eternal life. But it has been given to His mystical body <\/i>to, first, receive these merits through faith, and then,\u00a0distribute<\/em> these graces to the world, thus becoming a “sacrament” in itself. This should change for us the meaning of “Church”.<\/p>\n

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The body of Christ is not merely a collection of Christians. It is a living instrument of redemption\u2014an extension of Jesus Christ throughout time and space. He continues His salvific work through each member of His body. When a person understands this, he sees that the idea of “offering it up” is not just a theological reply to the question of human suffering, but rather a calling to participate in the salvation of the world.<\/strong> \u2014Jason Evert, author,\u00a0Saint John Paul the Great, His Five Loves;\u00a0<\/em>p. 177<\/span><\/p>\n

As sacrament, the Church is Christ’s instrument. “She is taken up by him also as the instrument for the salvation of all,” “the universal sacrament of salvation,” by which Christ is “at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God’s love for men.”<\/strong><\/span> \u2014Catechism of the Catholic Church,\u00a0<\/em>n. 776<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So you see, this is why Satan scares us into fleeing from the Garden of Gethsemane and even the mere shadow of the Cross… from suffering. Because he knows “the full truth about man”: that we are (potentially) not just mere observers of the Passion, but actual participants, insofar as we accept and unite our sufferings to Jesus Christ as\u00a0members of His mystical body.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Thus,\u00a0Satan is terrified of the man or woman who understands, and then lives this reality! For…<\/p>\n

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…the weaknesses of all human sufferings are capable of being infused with the same power of God manifested in Christ’s Cross…\u00a0so that every form of suffering, given fresh life by the power of this Cross, should become no longer the weakness of man but the power of God.<\/strong> \u2014ST. JOHN PAUL II, Salvifici Doloros<\/em><\/a>, n. 23, 26<\/span><\/p>\n

We are afflicted in every way… carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. (2 Cor 4:8, 10)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD<\/p>\n

Suffering, then, has two aspects. One is to draw the merits of Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection into our own lives through abandonment to God’s will, and second, to draw these merits upon others. On the one hand, to sanctify our own souls, and second, to draw graces for the salvation of others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls.\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014ST. JOHN PAUL II, Salvifici Doloros<\/em><\/a>, n. 27<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If “by grace you have been saved through faith,”<\/em>\u00a0[1]<\/sup><\/a>Eph 2:8<\/span><\/span>