' Have been wondering lately if crosses make our joy deeper.This thought came while reflecting on the crucifix hanging over the altar at St. Anne's. Several years ago while in quiet reflection I had this interior question presented to me "What Pierces Your Life " and the idea that direction and passion to carry me through my life would be in ministering from deep piercings in my life.One of my deep piercings is this waiting for the sacraments process that has gone on for years as I have struggled through how to live this out. The brokeness of Christ and that growing awareness of his Brokeness in the Eucharist has been a kind of underlying theme or perhaps better "stream" in my awareness . We once had a priest at the school where I work come and celebrate Mass and he somehow seemed to slow the whole process down and when he broke the large Host you could somehow hear it snap in the gym full of hundreds of people. His Celebration seemed to be much more understanding or sensitive to the brokeness of Christ , I guess you could say he had a spirituality of Brokeness. I found out in the process of wondering what was special about his Mass, that he was the head of Prison Chaplaincy for Canada and later went on to be the Bishop of the Yukon ( Father Gary Gordon.) This brokeness theme has stuck with me and with it you read scripture in a whole new way. You see people in a whole new light and if you start to look for it you start to find hints of Christs presence in people and who live are considered the simple and marginalized. So as I walk along with this quiet call to work from the place inside of me that is the " what pierces my life passion " I become more aware that crosses come to create deeper places for pools of grace in our lives. And with the crosses the nails that drive deep .
I have attended most of my life churches where there the crucifix is not well understood. A lot of Protestant folk, me for years among them,just didn't get it. The thought was "Christ has risen why keep Him on the Cross " as if somehow Catholic folk had missed the Resurrection as an event. One symbol taken out of context ,when the whole liturgy of the Church draws us for the whole year towards the wonderful light and Joy of Easter. Yet while the Crucifix is a point of misunderstanding it is in that awareness of Christs suffering on the cross that we receive the reminder of his humanity , his Incarnational Presence in the moment of our own suffering and brokeness. I can look up and know with certainty that whatever I am going through, how ever bad it is, there is someone who had gone before me. Someone who has carved a path with His own body through the trials and calls me to Follow all the way to the joy on the other side.
“The following is a prayer taken from Mother Theresa’s Meditations from A Simple Path:
| Since every perfect gift must come from You. I pray, give skill to my hands, clear vision to my mind, kindness and meekness to my heart. Give me singleness of purpose, strength to lift up part of the burden of my suffering fellow man, and a true realization of the privilege that is mine. Take from my heart all guile and worldliness, That with the simple faith of a child, I may rely on you.”[1] |
This is a prayer seeking to answer God’s call to social justice.
