The Empty Cross

Today is Good Friday. The day Jesus, who had already sacrificed by lowering Himself to take on human flesh, made an even greater sacrifice—allowing His own torture and death. Each year on this day, I reflect on how I used to view it as just another day. Nothing special about it. No reason to pause. No reason to take a day off from work.

“Take up your cross and follow me," Jesus says to us. Take on your difficulties and struggles, don’t avoid them, and follow me to Golgotha. Follow Me to the place of suffering for others and death to selfishness. “Ummmmmmm...no thanks!”

I, as a Catholic, have to be otherworldly. Peculiar. Set aside for Him. This is the day when it makes the least sense to celebrate or commemorate to the world, and so pausing from work to meditate on this gift and show my appreciation only seems fitting.

Psalm 2 “...The Lord said to me: “You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day...”

The Son of God suffered, and so shall I. Some large sufferings, and some small. Each suffering, each death, is a birth pain unto eternal life with Christ. Each time I willingly accept my suffering, to varying degrees, part of my selfishness dies. The closer I draw to Christ, the more He offers me opportunities to suffer for Him that I might become His and less my own. More a brother of His. More a son of our Father in Heaven. Suffering is the way of Christ—the Way of the Cross.

Many no longer acknowledge Him on the Cross. If we do, He is clean on the cross like He’s just chillin up there. We prefer the empty Cross or the cross with no blood. It makes us feel better. Tricks us into thinking the sacrifice ended with Him. There is no need to see it, and certainly no need to meditate on it or ask how I am called to follow Him. And so we wear crosses empty of His sacrifice, and on the day He died for each of us, we go on with life, engaging in work, play, socializing, eating, and all the other day-to-day activities.

In the past, I made excuses that I couldn’t get the day off from work, but I easily took time off for days I had a headache, wanted to get a new Xbox, or went on a relaxing vacation. However, I seemed unable to find a way to take it off to commemorate, meditate on, and enter into the sacrifice Jesus made for me. And so, because I, who claim to be a follower of Him, paid the day no attention and went on about my normal activities, so did the world.

My point here is not to shame or belittle people but to open eyes shut to the truth by an indifferent world, as mine were. We are to salt the earth; the earth is not to salt us. We are to be in the world but not of it. All Catholics are called to this, not just those seen as super serious religious extremists, but all of us. And, actually, we are all called to be extremists in the eyes of the world, especially in this present age. A godless age among godless ages. If you do not stand out from those worldly people around you, if they think you are just like them. If you cause no one discomfort, then, without judging your heart, your behavior indicates that you are not following Christ closely, as His mother and St. John did, but from a distance, as St. Peter did, who denied Him three times.

Even if you are at work today, please think about what I say here. Let down your defenses and ask yourself am I carrying my cross with Christ. Do I show appreciation for His sacrifice and death by making sacrifices myself and dying to myself each day? How are you setting yourself apart from the world in a meaningful way? If you are not doing anything, ask Jesus to help you see a way. A way to die to self just a little bit, and in so doing be an example to the world around you. Do not let the day He died out of love for you become just another day, as it is for the world.

Human-Written, AI Spell-Checked 4/2/21 AD

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