This week we celebrate two feasts that point to the same truth, but from two different perspectives. On September 14 we commemorate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. On September 15 we remember Our Lady of Sorrows.
There is a scene in the film, “The Passion of the Christ,” that portrays the moment when Jesus dies on the Cross. After the brutality of His Passion and Crucifixion described in vivid detail, He bows His head in death after declaring, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). The scene is seen from above and the camera zooms in on the dark figure depicting Satan. One would think that the Evil One would be laughing with delight at the demise of God, his archenemy. Instead, the Devil screams in a rage of defeat, because he recognizes that while Christ dies on the Cross, He is not defeated. Rather, the Evil One and his plan to spread darkness and sin into the hearts of men and women is defeated definitively. He is undone but he still prowls as roaring lion. The Cross as the instrument that brought about the suffering and death of Jesus becomes the royal throne of His victory. In the Divine Office, the Church expresses this truth in sublime beauty, “O glorious Cross, our arms upheld the priceless ransom of captive mankind. Through you the world has been saved by the Blood of the Lord.” In a hymn for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Church sings, “Ave Crux, spes unica,” “Hail, O Cross, our only hope.” It reminds us that in God’s mysterious plan, Jesus Christ who is true God Himself became one of us, like us in all things but sin, and died for us on the Cross to give us eternal life. His sacrificial death is His glorious victory!
The Cross is truly the perfect sign of hope for us and all the world. This may ring strange to the world today and even to some Christians. Imagine having a conversation with someone who has never heard of Jesus, or read the Gospel, or been to a Catholic Church. Suppose this person asks you, “What gives hope to your life?” You respond by saying, “Come, I will show you.” You then lead this person into a Catholic Church and you point to a large, beautifully carved crucifix hanging over the altar, saying, “This is my hope!” Confounded, the person exclaims, “How can it be? He is dying. It’s impossible.” Your reply is, “This is what love looks like. Yes, He died but now He lives with me every day and draws me to Himself and His Kingdom of love. Nothing can defeat Him.”
This is why we approach Christ’s crucified image with such reverence and awe. By offering Himself in absolute love to the Father, He offers Himself to us with a love that gives joy and hope to our troubled hearts. We believe that living in Him and “carrying in (our) body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Cor 4:10), we are intimately united with Him and that we can never be defeated by the evil of this world. We sing Christ’s praises because “to destroy the power of hell Christ died upon the cross; clothed in strength and glory, He triumphed over death” (Heb 2:14).
Jesus knows that we need to be drawn into the glory and mystery of His Cross in many difficult and painful circumstances. That brings us to the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, the Mother who stood at the foot of her Son’s Cross. Jesus wants us to be united with the Cross as He tells us, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). He leaves nothing to chance in this invitation. He gives us His own Mother to show us the way.
In our life we may know what it means to embrace the Cross through many trying and painful days. The pain of the death of a loved one echoes the Cross to our very depths. Illness and disability can be so very difficult to bear. Disagreement and bad feelings with others can weigh so heavily upon us. Humiliation and misunderstanding can cut us to the heart. Isolation and separation from others can burden us terribly. We may even cry out, “O God, I cannot bear this.” In love He looks at us and points to His Mother. We hear that wonderfully consoling proclamation of Jesus from His agony on the Cross, that manifests to us the help and the encouragement to embrace that same Cross—“Woman, behold your son,” and “Behold your Mother.” These words to Our Lady and St. John are not just an entrustment between Mary and the Beloved Apostle. Rather, this exchange forges a bond between every baptized person and the Mother of God within the Mystery of His Passion and Death.
His Mother stood by Him in His agony and death, not just as a passive speculator, but, rather, as a Mother who suffered along with Him and who was intimately united with Him. He shed His Blood. She shed her tears. His Heart was pierced through by the centurion’s lance. Her Heart was thrust through by the sword of a Mother’s sorrow over her beloved Son. He looked upon each one of us from His Cross of agony and triumph with infinite love. She, given by Him to us as our Mother, gazes upon us and teaches us that the Cross in our life is the royal way to eternal life in His Kingdom. The Church declares this bond between the Sorrowful Mother and us in this beautifully expressive verse, “Through you we drink from the wellsprings of salvation, O Blessed Virgin Mary, from the sacred wounds of Christ.”
When we are afflicted in the worst possible way in life, when we think we simply cannot bear the Cross from day to day, we look to the Mother He has given to us. We see in her the hope we so desperately need to walk the way of the Cross. We see in her the “icon” of what it means to stand by Him who was nailed to the Cross and to find strength in His suffering and death. She shows us that the Cross leads us to the empty tomb of her Jesus. She gently and lovingly accompanies us in our own suffering to find meaning, purpose, and ultimate victory. She points to her crucified Son and says to us, “My children, this is hope… This is love.”
We see that we are so blessed to be embraced by these two feasts of the victorious Cross and the Mother of Sorrows. In this embrace we learn to live the triumph through the Cross.
Mary, Mother of Sorrows, Mother of Hope, pray for us!
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh