An Invitation to Love the Holy Cross
of Our Lord Jesus Christ

The Gospel gives us abundant evidence for how the great mercy of our Divine Savior impelled Him to sympathize with our sufferings of soul and body. It is enough to consider the many astonishing miracles of His omnipotence that He performed to alleviate them.

However, let us not imagine that this effort to alleviate our suffering was the greatest benefit He bestowed on men in this earthly life.

Those who close their eyes to the central fact that He is our Redeemer and that He wanted to suffer the cruelest pains to redeem us do not understand Christ’s mission among men.

Even at the height of His Passion, by a mere act of His Divine Will, Our Lord could have instantly caused all those pains to cease. From the first moment of His Passion to the last, He could have ordered His wounds to be healed, His precious Blood to stop flowing, the blows He received to leave no scars on His divine Body, and, finally, a brilliant and joyous victory to abruptly cut short the persecution that was dragging Him to that cruel death.

Notwithstanding, He did not desire to do this. On the contrary, He wanted to be dragged along the Via Dolorosa to the top of Golgotha; He wanted to see His Most Holy Mother delivered to the very depths of suffering; finally, He wanted to cry out, so that men would hear Him until the end of time saying these piercing words: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mt 27:46).

From these facts we understand that, by giving us the grace to be called so that each one of us may suffer with Him a portion of His Passion, He made clear the incomparable role of the Cross in the life of men, in the History of the world and in its glorification.

By inviting us to suffer the pains of the present life, He shows that He does not wish to dispense any one of us from pronouncing in our last moment his own consummatum est - “It is finished” (Jn 19:30).

Without understanding the Cross, without love for the Cross, without each one of us having passed through his own via crucis, we will not have fulfilled the designs of Providence for us. Then, when we die, we will not be able to echo that sublime exclamation of St. Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Nothing remains for me but to await the crown of justice which is laid up for me, which the Lord as righteous Judge shall give me on that day” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).

Any quality, however outstanding it may be, will be of no use if that soul does not have the love for the Holy Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ as its foundation. With that love for the Cross we will achieve everything, even if we are weighed down by the sacred burden of purity and practice of the other virtues, the incessant attacks and mockery of the enemies of the Faith, and the betrayals of false friends.

The great foundation, the greatest foundation of Christian Civilization, is this: that all men are called to generously exercise love for the Holy Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. These are extremely opportune reflections for the season of Lent. May Mary help us to have this love so that we will reconquer for her Divine Son the Kingdom of God, which is so weak and wavering in the hearts of men today.

Ave Crux Spes Unica - “Hail Cross, Only Hope”