Carrying our Cross

I was reading the gospel for this Sunday, the Gospel of Matthew, chapter sixteen, verses twenty one to twenty seven, and it just struck me because it speaks about suffering and the cross.

In this article I would like to reflect with you about the meaning of suffering and the cross.

In the lives of each of us there is something painful, big or small, some of which we wish to be different. In the lives of each of us there is a cross. Sometimes the cross can be because of others, if someone treats us badly; sometimes the cross can be because of ourselves, if we did something foolish and we have to pay for it; and sometimes the cross is neither the fault of others nor ourselves, but because of the accidents of life or simply because we are human and do not have the perfection of God.

It is natural to become angry when we have a cross, or when there is some disruption in our life, just as Peter was angry when Jesus mentioned that he has to suffer and die in Jerusalem. Peter rebuked him and said "Heaven preserve you, Lord. This must not happen to you' (Mt 16:22). There is a lot of anger with God among people because they are blaming God for something that went wrong. Blaming God for some trouble is because we are too weak to face up to the real cause of the problem. God the Father did not kill his son Jesus, it was the Roman soldiers who sourged him, crowned him and crucified him. God did not give them the orders, the orders came from Pilate. In the same way, blaming God for the suffering of starving children in Africa or Asia is simply not facing up to the real cause of their suffering. Is not the cause of their suffering partly due to adverse weather caused by global warming, and global warming is caused by all the fuel we are burning? It seems to me that we are more to blame than God. Also, much of their suffering is caused by civil wars. God did not start the civil wars either. They began because one section of society is trying to dominate and subdue another section of society, in other words one group in society is greedy. Blaming God for the problems of the world is only passing the buck instead of facing up to our own culpability for what has gone wrong. Up to this time, no one has yet come up with an adequate answer to explain the mystery of human suffering, all we have are bits and pieces of answers.

If we read the gospel I cited in the beginning of this article, we try to analyze what Jesus meant when he said, "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross everyday and follow me." One of the possible ways in which I think we could understand those words is that Jesus is encouraging us to face the pain of life and try to solve life's problems instead of turning to drink or drugs which will not solve any problem. Or, for young people whose friends do not think God or prayer is cool, taking up the cross means remaining faithful to God and prayer, even if others think are not cool.

This much I can say - one of the mysteries of life is that grace accompanies every cross or we will receive a grace if we carry our cross. Jesus would not have risen from the dead if he did not die on the cross and we are running away from a grace that awaits us if we are running away from our cross. Any cross is painful but with prayer and the help of other people we can carry our crosses.

I think there is something holy about our cross. It keeps us close to God. When there is some pain in our lives, when we have to carry a cross we depend more on God. I think it is part of God's mysterious plan that we carry a cross because it keeps us close to God. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said that "suffering are the kisses of Jesus in our lives."

Perhaps we could describe receiving the grace with or after the cross as a healing. After the cross comes new life, resurrection, grace, thanksgiving. So we can say "Thanks be to God I have come through it." We know we are healed, we know we have received the grace only when we can say "Thanks be to God."

The particular grace we receive is often in proportion to our cross.If we know the pain of being hurt by others, we end up being more sensitive to others, not wishing to impose hurt or injury on others ourselves.

Yes, of course, God does not want us to suffer. But when we have a cross to carry, let's not blame God or pass the buck but do our part to solve the problem. Instead, let us pray more, and remember the words of Jesus, "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself, take up his cross everyday and follow me."