Weekly Catholic Bible Study

Oratory of Divine Love Reflection 414: Avoiding the Cross: A Reflection on Isaiah 50:4-9A

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The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. He is near who upholds my right; if anyone wishes to oppose me, let us appear together. Who disputes my right? Let him confront me. See, the Lord GOD is my help; who will prove me wrong? (Isaiah 5); 4-9A)

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We live in a world that does it best to avoid the cross. Look at the way people behave. They exercise every day. They avoid foods with gluten, sugar, saturated fats, aspartame -- all in an attempt to avoid the cross. I suppose that helps to some degree. However, my dad, who got diabetes in his forties, scrupulously watched his diet, and got his weight down, and took all his medications faithfully, and that STILL didn’t stop the disease from slowly breaking down all his bodily functions, until when he finally died, he couldn’t see, hear, taste, smell, or even move without great difficulty. We can try to avoid it, but one way or another, the cross will come to us.

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Jesus did not run from his cross. Instead, he spent his life preparing for it. The apostles try to dodge the cross. EVERY TIME Jesus confronted them with the cross, they tried to escape it. When Jesus speaks of his crucifixion, Peter starts arguing with him, and James and John ask if they can sit on his left and right when he comes into his glory. Other times, they’re too afraid to speak or question him about the crucifixion. So, we are in good company at least. We are like the apostles. But the question that confronts our lives is NOT “How do we avoid the cross?” but rather, “What are we going to do with the cross when it comes to us?”

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Well, Father, I’m going to carry it of course! OK. But are you going to carry it well, or are you going to carry it poorly? Because we can moan and groan and complain over our crosses, and yet still carry them. And while that still merits some grace, it certainly won’t inspire faith in others.

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When I was in my third year of seminary, I had my first hospital ministry experience. I was stationed at Gettysburg hospital in Pennsylvania, and the first couple months I hated it, because I’d see people in suffering, and I wouldn’t know what to say to them. My strategy was to try to get their focus OFF of suffering and onto something positive. Avoid the cross. Then three months into my assignment I met Sister Monica, Daughter of Charity, 89 years old and in the hospital for a series of stomach operations. She had so many ulcers in her stomach that the doctors didn’t know what to do. She was in great pain, but you’d never know it because she was very bright and cheerful and spry. As soon as she saw me walk in, a fresh faced, young seminarian, she lit up, sat me down and told me all about life before Vatican II; what it was life to go to the Latin Mass, and how most of her years as a nun had been spent as a teacher. One year she was put in a high school science class, and she knew nothing about science, so she taught that entire year, one chapter ahead of her students. She was an incredible lady, and at one point she told me something I will never forget. She said, “Michael, God used to call me to sainthood through service. Now he calls me to sainthood through suffering. And that’s how he calls us. Some he calls through service, some he calls through suffering, and some he calls through both.” Sister Monica was a woman who carried her cross well. So, how can we do the same?

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What determines how we will carry our cross is how well we train ourselves to carry it. This is one of the functions of Lent. Lent trains us to carry our crosses. It’s through self-denial, charity, and immersing ourselves in prayer NOW that we strengthen ourselves to carry our crosses later. When Lent is over, that doesn’t mean we can indulge all our old, bad, habits again. Hopefully, something of what we have done in Lent will stick with us, so that next year we can challenge ourselves to climb to the next level. Then when the times comes, we won’t try to dodge the cross. Instead, we’ll embrace it and carry it with great grace.

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Blessed be God forever. Father Michael Anthony Sisco

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Quote from a Saint: Yet the passion of Christ on the Cross gave a radically new meaning to suffering, transforming it from within. It introduced into human history, which is the history of sin, a blameless suffering accepted purely for love. This suffering opens the door to the hope of liberation, hope for the definitive elimination of that ‘sting’, which is tearing humanity apart. It is this suffering which burns and consumes evil with the flame of love and draws forth even from sin a great flowering of good. All human suffering, all pain, all infirmity contains within itself a promise of salvation, a promise of joy: ‘I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake’, writes Saint Paul (Col. 1:24). This applies to all forms of suffering, called forth by evil. It applies to that enormous social and political evil which divides and torments the world today: the evil of war, the evil of oppression afflicting individuals and peoples, the evil of social injustice, of human dignity trodden underfoot, of racial and religious discrimination, the evil of violence, terrorism, the arms race – all this evil is present in our world partly so as to awaken our love, our self-gift in generous and disinterested service to those visited by suffering. In the love that pours forth from the heart of Christ, we find hope for the future of the world. Christ has redeemed the world. ‘By his wounds we are healed’. (Is. 53:5) – St. John Paul the Great, Memory and Identity

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Prayer: Prayer for Those Who Carry Their Cross

O my God, I thank you for this cross you have allowed me to carry. Please give me the strength and faith to persevere so that I may bring glory to your name while withstanding the burden of its weight. Thank you for offering me a share in your suffering. I know that you have always been, are now, and ever will be, at my side every step of the way. Thank you also for every "Simon" that you have sent to help me bear this cross. I have prayed so often that this thorn in my flesh would be removed, but I trust that your grace is sufficient. Change my heart's troubled cry of --"How long, O Lord", into words of trust: "However long, O Lord". May I seek only to do your will and to unite my sufferings with your passion. Help me to not get lost in my own self concerns, but may I find in these trials a way to greater virtue, a call to prayer and a path to trust in you alone. Permit me not to waste my pain, but to make of these struggles a sacrificial offering for others. Lord, when I am weary and I fall, exhausted under the weight of this cross, please give me the courage to press on as you did. Lord Jesus, I embrace with love my cross, as a share in your own. By your grace, may I carry it all the way to the vision of your glory. I abandon myself totally to your will. Christ Jesus, I trust in you. Amen

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Questions for Reflection:

1. Pray and discuss the prayer in light of carrying your own cross and helping others with theirs.

2. Discuss the reflection by Saint John Paul the Great.

3. Other than the suffering Christ, who do you feel has carried the greatest cross? Why do you say this? Do you feel that some people have no crosses to carry? Why do you say this?

4. Make a list of five things we can do to help carry our crosses more faithfully.

5. Discuss this: Life is a series of one cross after the other, sometimes a few at once.

6. Reread Sr Monica’s attitude toward her cross and discuss her level of faith.

7. How to people try to avoid the cross? Is this wise?

8. Make a list of five ways you can be Simon of Cyrene and help others with their crosses.

--Madeline Pecora Nugent, CFP