Without The Cross

It is Tuesday of Holy Week.  The holiest week of the year.  It's been just a little over 3 months since we celebrated one of the happiest days of the year...Christmas.  From crib to cross.  From His mother's arms in Bethlehem as that newborn babe that shepherds came to adore back to her arms once again.  This time, He is dead.  He is covered in blood.  No one is there to worship and adore Him.  Yet we call this special day, this holy day, GOOD Friday.  Good?  How can we call this good?

He took up that cross, after such a harsh beating, and carried that cross, through the streets of Jerusalem.  People taunted Him, spit at Him, ignored Him.  Some wept, some helped.  Didn't anyone understand or feel how important this was?  He was carrying OUR sins on that cross.  Being nailed to that cross and dying on it opened the gates of Heaven that were closed so long ago, again, due to our sin.  that is why it is good.  He is taking our sin, crushing it, doing away with it.  We may sin again, but no longer does this mean our eternity will be spent without Him. 

We cannot celebrate Easter, or the Resurrection, without remembering all of this.  There is no hope of eternal life without that cross.  This is the way God choose to have our debt of sin repaid.  We need to embrace His cross, His sacrifice.  We need to embrace our own crosses as well.  We need to accept that we too, need to sacrifice.  At times, during Mass, when my children don't feel like kneeling all through the consecration, I point up to Him on that crucifix and whisper, "Do you think Jesus felt like hanging on that cross?"  They silently kneel again.

We all must sacrifice and suffer in some way.  How we choose to embrace these crosses that God has laid before us depends on what kind of Easter we will have.  Can we tell God that this cross is too hard for us to bear?  Can we tell Him we are in pain, please take this away from us?  "Father, let this cup pass from me..."  Of course we can ask, even beg for it to be taken away, but joyfully, we must accept these pains and sufferings, "not my will, but Yours be done."  Joyfully we can look to Easter and realize that one day, we too, will rise.  He will gently take our hand and lead us home to be with him for all eternity. 
Have a blessed Holy week and a blessed Easter!