We all carry our own cross in this life

By Dan Debano
RR Ministerial

Once a year, the Catholic Church sets aside one weekend in September to celebrate the “Feast of the Triumph of the Cross.” The official Latin title of this feast is “the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.” The word ‘exaltation” refers to raising up, elevating, glorifying, praising, and honoring.
In the Gospel reading from John 3:13-17, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” In John’s Gospel lifting up means both the act of physically raising Jesus up on the cross at the crucifixion, but also Jesus’ glorification by the Father in the splendor of the resurrection.
The Cross is both the tree of death and the tree of life. It is the tree of death because it was the object upon which our Lord was nailed, and Jesus died upon the Cross. The Cross is the tree of life because our Lord conquered death by his resurrection. How fortunate that our Lord would embrace death for each of us and for the remission of our sins so that we could enjoy eternal life and not taste eternal death, though we will have to face physical death one day.
The manner in which crosses are worn in jewelry today might give the impression that the Cross is only meant for decoration. However, the fact of the matter is, we must never forget the cruel death our Lord faced upon the Cross. The Cross was an instrument of torture. Wearing a cross can be a wonderful reminder of Our Lord’s love for us as longs as we understand the full meaning of the Cross in both its mode of death and its mode of life. Thus, the Cross has more than one meaning: the Cross represents suffering, death, life, salvation, love, and trust in God.
“We” must each carry our own Cross in this life. There is no way for us to avoid the Cross and human suffering. If we can carry our Cross in a loving way as Jesus did, and also carry it with complete trust in God, then our Cross will be easier to carry. Then we will understand how to carry the Cross.
Let me put it another way, when we as a community and as individuals find meaning in our suffering, then we can endure it with patience and hope. On the other hand, when we as a community and as individuals see no purpose in our suffering, we become hopeless, sad and bitter. Every Christian should see the Cross in their life as an opportunity to find exaltation with Jesus Christ. We find exaltation in our own Cross by carrying it willingly and finding in it the means of our redemption. Our Cross becomes a way for us to share in the suffering of Christ, and then Jesus can take our human suffering and transform it with His supernatural power into something redemptive for us, for our community, and for the world.
Therefore, the exaltation and lifting up of the Cross reminds us that Jesus was lifted up in His suffering on Mount Calvary, and He was lifted up in the resurrection. Let all of us of the Rainy River District pray for the faith to see our suffering as an opportunity to be lifted up with Christ in both His suffering and His rising from death and an opportunity to offer up our suffering for our own redemption and the redemption of the whole world.