{"id":32638,"date":"2018-01-08T17:07:10","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T23:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=32638"},"modified":"2018-01-08T17:50:05","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T23:50:05","slug":"the-cross-the-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-cross-the-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cross, the Cross!","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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ONE<\/strong> of the greatest questions I’ve faced in my personal walk with God is why I seem to change so little?<\/em> “Lord, I pray every day, say the Rosary, go to Mass, have regular confession, and pour myself out in this ministry. Why, then, do I seem stuck in the same old patterns and faults that hurt me and the ones I love the most?” The answer came to me so clearly:<\/p>\n

The Cross, the Cross!<\/em><\/p>\n

But what is “the Cross”?<\/p>\n

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THE TRUE CROSS<\/p>\n

We tend to immediately equate the Cross to suffering. That to “take up my Cross” means that I should suffer pain in some way. But that is really not what the Cross is. Rather, it is the expression of emptying oneself out completely for love of the other<\/em>. For Jesus, it meant literally<\/em> suffering unto death, because that was the nature and necessity of His personal mission. But not many of us are called to suffer and die a brutal death for another; that is not our personal mission. So then, when Jesus tells us to take up our Cross, it must contain a deeper meaning, and it is this:<\/p>\n

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I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. (John 13:34)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jesus’ life, Passion, and death provide for us a new\u00a0pattern<\/em> that we are to follow:<\/p>\n

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Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus…\u00a0he emptied himself,\u00a0taking the form of a slave…\u00a0he humbled himself,\u00a0becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. (Philipians 2:5-8)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

St. Paul underscores the essence of this pattern when he says that Jesus took the form of a slave<\/em>, humbling<\/em> himself\u2014and then adds that, for Jesus, it involved “even death.” We are to imitate the essence, not necessarily the physical death (unless God grants one the gift of martyrdom). So, to take up one’s Cross means to “love one another”<\/em>, and by his words and example, Jesus showed us how:<\/p>\n

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Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven… For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.\u00a0(Matt 18:4; Luke 9:48)<\/span><\/p>\n

Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matt 20:26-28)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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MOUNT CALVARY… NOT JUST TABOR<\/p>\n

The reason I believe many, including myself, who pray, go to Mass regularly, adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, attend conferences and retreats, make pilgrimages, offer rosaries and novenas etc… but do not grow in virtue, is because they have not really taken up the Cross. Mount Tabor is not Mount Calvary.\u00a0<\/em>Tabor was only preparation for the Cross. So too, when we seek spiritual graces, they cannot be an end in themselves (what if Jesus never came down from Tabor??). We must always have the welfare and salvation of others at heart. Otherwise our growth in the Lord will be stunted, if not negated.<\/p>\n

The Cross is not performing all these necessary devotions, even though it seems we are doing something heroic. Rather, it is when we become a true servant of our spouse or children, our roommates or companions, our fellow parishioners or communities. Our Catholic faith cannot devolve to a sort of means to self-improvement, or to only subdue our troubled consciences, or simply find equilibrium. And grant you, God does<\/em> respond to us in these quests, nonetheless; He does bestow His mercy and peace, His love and forgiveness whenever we seek Him. He sustains us insofar as He can, because He loves us\u2014just as a mother feeds her crying infant, though the child has only its own hunger in mind.<\/p>\n

But if she is a good mother, she will eventually wean the child and teach him to love his siblings and neighbour and to share with those who are hungry.\u00a0So too, even though we seek God in prayer and He nurses us with grace, like a good mother, He says:<\/p>\n

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Still, the Cross, the Cross! Imitate Jesus. Become a child. Become the servant. Become the slave. This is the only Way that leads to\u00a0Resurrection.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you are perennially struggling against your temper, lust, compulsiveness, materialism or what have you, then the only way to conquer these vices is to set upon the way of the Cross. You can spend all day long adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, but it will make little difference if you spend your evenings serving yourself. St. Teresa of Calcutta once said, “The time spent by my sisters at the service of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, allows them to spend hours of service<\/em> to Jesus in the poor.”\u00a0The purpose of our prayers and spiritual efforts, then, can never be to transform ourselves alone, but must also dispose us\u00a0“for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.”<\/em> [1]<\/sup><\/a>Eph 2:10<\/span><\/span>