Editor’s Note: This column is reprinted from the March 24, 2004 edition of the Denver Catholic Register, official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Denver. Archbishop José H. Gomez will begin writing for Today’s Catholic in the near future.

“We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you,
because by your holy cross
you have redeemed the world.”
The Way of the Cross

    During this Lenten season, as we make our way toward Holy Week, we should take time to reflect on the cross and what that means to us.
    The cross has always been a distinctive sign of Christian life. It tops our churches, distinguishes religious men and women, and is worn or carried as a symbol of one’s belief in Christ.
    But the cross is more than just a symbol: it is the reality of the weight of daily life that every Christian shares with our Lord.
    Our cross can be something as serious as a terminal illness or the loss of a loved one or we can experience it in the daily grind of human irritations and distractions — those occasions that demand from us an even greater degree of charity, patience, kindness and humility with ourselves and with others.

    There are several ways to carry one’s cross.
    There is the cross carried angrily, with a deep, burning resentment.
    That is a cross without meaning, useless; such a cross may even separate one from God.
    There is the cross carried with resignation — perhaps even with dignity — with acceptance, because there is no alternative.
    Then there is the best way to carry one’s cross — Jesus’ way. Jesus embraced the saving wood and taught us how we ought to carry our cross: with love, participating as co-redeeming souls with him, making reparation for our sins and the sins of all mankind.
    Sorrow, suffering and contradiction cease to be merely negative as soon as we understand that we do not carry the cross alone but with Jesus, who is passing by and coming to meet us.

    There is a Christian fable about a man, who, tired of carrying his cross, goes to visit Jesus to complain about its weight and to ask if he can trade his cross for another. With much patience Christ takes him into a large room filled with crosses of all sizes and types and tells him to choose the one he wants.
    The man sets his eyes on a very small cross, but when he tries to lift it its weight is unbearable. He then chooses a very thin one, but when he tries to grab it he finds it covered with tiny thorns. Finally, after spending several hours looking for just the “right” cross, he finds one sufficiently bearable and tells the Lord: “This is the cross I want to take with me!” With kindness Jesus responds, “But son, this is precisely the one you brought here to trade for a new one!”
    This fable portrays well what often happens with our own cross: we believe it is too heavy or we believe that God is being “unfair” with us, particularly when we compare our cross to someone else’s.
    “The cross of Christ projects a ray of light over the mystery of human suffering, only through the cross can we understand the meaning of our suffering,” said Pope John Paul II more than 20 years ago as he addressed a group of sick and disabled people.

     As we prepare for Holy Week let’s try to spend time in communion with the Lord.
    Contemplating his image on the cross will deepen our awareness that “God so loved the world” that he gave the life of his son on the cross.
    During this special time we must also keep in mind the great suffering of the mother of Jesus: her face scarred with grief as she met her son on the road to the hill of crucifixion.
    Mary’s sorrow on Calvary was deeper than any sorrow ever felt on earth. She suffered in her soul what Jesus suffered in his body.
    What was in her heart at seeing this unjust treatment of her son? How do we react when we experience things that are unfair or unjust?
    We can react like Mary did — with dignity, humility and acceptance of God’s will.
    Devotion to the sorrows of Mary is the source of great graces because it leads into the depths of the heart of Christ.
    There is no love like her love; there is no sorrow like her sorrow. She bore her sufferings for us that we might enjoy the graces of redemption.
    Let us ask Jesus to help us to give ourselves over to his beloved mother and to teach us to bear our cross patiently with her, the Mother of Sorrows.