We Must Carry Our Cross Wth Joy

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. The words of St. Paul to the Galatians.

Many of you probably know that while most Protestant churches do not have religious orders, the Episcopal Church does. Two of these order were established by the same founder, are the brothers of the Order of the Holy Cross, and the Sisters of the Order St. Helena. They share a common motto, a sentence attributed to St. Bonaventure, Crux est mundi medicina, which means, for those of you whose Latin might be a bit rusty, the Cross is the medicine of the world.

What an odd motto. If asked to describe the Cross, we are most likely to say it is the symbol of our faith, or it is the instrument of execution on which Jesus was crucified. Medicine is not the first description we would be likely to think of. To be honest, as we go about our busy lives, none of us probably give much thought, if any, to the Cross, what it represents, or what it means for us. Instead, in our consumer driven society, our thoughts about religion, when we have them, tend to conform to our worldly way of thinking.

In this world, we want choices, and we all want the very best choices - not just for ourselves but for our children and those we care about. We have been conditioned to believe that having all the options and choosing the best is what makes us free and happy. Not only the rich believe this, but the middle class, and the poor also. We all believe that we “good people” have the right to demand the very best. In fact, we insist on it. We insist on it being offered to us without any effort of our own, without any struggle or discomfort, and become angry if this is not the case.

This sort of thinking in our daily lives, drifts easily into our spiritual lives as well. We reason that God really doesn’t want us to struggle or be humbled/humiliated; rather He wants to give us a successful and prosperous life as a sign of His favour for us.

Does this sound familiar? Back in the 1980s the televangelists brought forward this way of thinking, and it caught on quickly – because it fits in perfectly with our consumer mentality. We reason that if we live “good lives”, God will reward us. This is known as the “Prosperity Gospel”, and it is heresy, pure and simple.

Jesus did not become incarnate so that we could live comfortable lives free of illness and filled with financial success. He did not come so that we could live a painless life, nor did He carry His Cross so that we would never have to carry a cross. Rather, Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. But the problem here is, we misinterpret that word “abundantly”.

Real life, the true life that Jesus has taught us and lived Himself, is not about having more, better, and best at no cost, but is made very clear in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus tells us: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his Cross and follow Me”. To come after Jesus means to walk closely behind Him, to be His follower, which is what we consider ourselves to be. But, greedy people that we are, we don’t like His terms, and though we may not refuse Him outright, we certainly struggle to accept His offer.

Crux est mundi medicina. But then we say – wait a minute. Maybe we can do this, but isn’t there supposed to be a spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down? Yes – but that depends on our definition of “sugar”. God’s gifts, beginning with our very lives themselves, are not of the sugar of this world, and yet, there is sweetness. Jesus has given us that sweetness that will sustain us as we live our lives and carry our cross, a sweetness we call Holy Communion, which strengthens us, and fills us with grace. It is this gift that makes it possible to carry the cross we have been given.

The mystery of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus is what real Christianity is all about. It is precisely through the Cross that we find Christ. It is completely impossible to follow Him without carrying our cross.

St. Isaac of Nineveh says that “the Cross is the door to mystery”, the mystery of our salvation. It is a paradox, death giving life. Jesus Himself has told us: “For whoever wishes to save their life will lose it; but whoever loses their life for My sake will find it”.

What does that mean? How do we lose our life for Jesus? We die to ourselves – which at first sounds terrible, but what it means is that we don’t have to be preoccupied with ourselves anymore. We no longer have to try to get our way all the time, or try to get people to notice how smart we are, or how good looking we are, or how right we are. We no longer have to insert ourself in other’s conversations, or give our “expert” opinion on the subject of the day. We can be free from constantly seeking pleasure and comfort. We can be free from needing the approval of others.

 As we die to ourselves the “new person”, made in the image and likeness of God, can emerge and grow. As all the selfishness and self-centeredness dies away, as we pick up our cross without complaining, more room is made for Jesus, for His love and for love of others. We can finally put God and our neighbor first.

There is a story told of St. Ambrose of Milan and his deacon as they were traveling a long distance. They stopped to rest at the home of a pious farmer. The farmer and his wife were very pleased to see their holy bishop St. Ambrose and prepared a great feast for him. As the meal progressed and all the servants were waiting on the guests, St. Ambrose asked the farmer, “How is your health?” And the farmer said “Excellent, no illnesses.” “And how is your wife,” the bishop asked. “She’s in excellent health also.” “And how are your children?” “They are all well,” he said, “and very intelligent.” Then St. Ambrose asked, “And how is your farm doing?” “Oh, excellent,” the farmer said, “I’ve had a bountiful harvest and am building new barns to hold all the crops.” At that point St. Ambrose stood up and said to his deacon, “Come, we must leave this place, God does not dwell here.”

What we think we want is happiness, those moments when we have what we want, we feel good about everything, and we feel like we have all the things we deserve, when – you know -“life is good“. But we are not called to great happiness, we are called to deep and lasting joy, joy that is rooted deep in our hearts and souls, and comes from our recognition and acceptance of our Lord and God, which comes from our union with Jesus. We find joy in carrying our cross.

Crux est mundi medicina. It is time to face our fear. The Cross heals. It is not just a symbol of our faith, not just a means of execution, not something we should try to avoid at all cost, because it might, and probably will, mean our lives could be uncomfortable or even unpleasant. True, the Cross is medicine, and medicine can at first be hard to swallow, but the Cross is more than that. The Cross is mystery. The Cross is joy. The Cross is the portal to salvation.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, be our refuge and our strength. When our lives are filled with challenges and complications, when illness strikes, when sorrow comes, when we struggle to make ends meet, when we seem to not have the “good stuff” we think we deserve, when we think our cross is too much to bear, turn our hearts and minds to Your suffering on the Holy Cross, and to the joy of our salvation.  Jesus, we trust in You. Amen.