Love for the Cross

By Chiara Lubrich

'As for me the only thing I can boast aboutis the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world' (Galations 6:14)

For Paul there is no greater suffering than to see. some of his recent converts repudiate and denigrate the cross of Christ in everyday life.

Who was Jesus for Paul? He was the ultimate sign of the Father's love. The Father had nothing greater to give to us than his son. At the same time the cross is the ultimate sign of Jesus' love for us.

Obedient to 'the will of the Father he wanted to share our humanity to the extent of dying on a cross for us. Jesus on the cross, out of love for the Father and for us humbled himself, made himself poor, weak, a failure. He was reduced to nothing and experienced the abandonment by the Father.

But through all this, even though our reason and our instincts at times find his way absurd and unacceptable, we are reconciled with God. He has healed and renewed us by sharing his divine life with us. We have been made into a new family, the children of God and have been reconciled with one another.

'AS FOR ME THE ONLY THING I CAN BOAST ABOUT IS THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THROUGH WHOM THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED TO ME AND I TO THE WORLD'

Jesus on the cross is the full expression of God's love, which unites what was divided and dispersed. He was the first to love us. He was not afraid of humiliating himself and making himself one with those who suffer. As part of his design for the total salvation of the world he gave value to all those who are despised or considered unimportant by society.

The cross of Jesus then, is the answer to the world which is fascinated by power, self sufficiency, self satisfaction hatred, selfishness and division... Jesus' cross has once and for all exposed and condemned the world for its vanity, its pretence, its petty and narrow vision of life.

'AS FOR ME THE ONLY THING I CAN BOAST ABOUT IS THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUSCHRIST, THROUGH WHOM THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED TO ME AND I TO THE WORLD'

St. Paul has already made his uncompromising choice and has put the world behind him. The world is dead for him as he Is for the world.

St. Paul is very aware that the future lies in the cross of Jesus. This is why he wants to know only Jesus and him crucified. His heart is overflowing with love for Jesus. Paul's glory comes not from human recognition or rewards but from his sharing in the cross of Christ with all' its trials and sufferings. This is specially so when he is persecuted for his love of the gospel. His body carries the marks of this love. Ats pride does not consist in the conversions he makes, but In forming real disciples who have understood the true meaning of the cross.

'AS FOR ME THE ONLY THING I CAN BOAST ABOUT IS THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THROUGH WHOM THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED TO ME AND I TO THE WORLD'

This very Important word of life leaves us with this message: we are urged to make (if we have not yet done so) or renew our own choice of Jesus crucified. This means that we must be faithful to Jesus above all in the trials difficulties and obstacles that we meet.

These difficulties, we know, come from our weaknesses, temptations, misunderstandings and the environment in which we live. We meet obstacles both of a physical nature (for instance, Illnesses and financial strife) and of a moral nature (failures, disillusionment, a sense of solitude and so on).

To love Jesus crucified means believing that the love of God Is present during trials and sorrow. More than that, the love of God for us is greatest at these times.

Embracing the cross of Jesus means embracing any suffering in the same way as Jesus did with the certainty that resurrection always follows death. Thus, if we love the cross, we cannot be contented with a passive and resigned attitudetowards trials; on the contrary we must make anactive response. This means believing In the love of God convinced that from love for the cross will come light and strength to transform and renew the world.

Marist Supplement
By vowing chastity, obedience, and poverty Marists live the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection. They die daily, to this world and herald the new world inaugurated by the risen Jesus.

This month we meditate on the mystery of Christ's death. We do this at a time when Mary is -winning for the Society the great grace of a new sense of what it means to be a herald of the Gospel. This is happening in an epoch when the centre of Christendom has shifted from Europe to the great Pacific lake which we inhabit. On its shores 1m the teeming peoples of Asia, of the Americas and of our fellow islanders. One person in four in the world is a Chinese Communist; after four centuries of evangelisation less than one percent of Japan is Christian. There is the huge resurgence of Islam with its consequences for our mission in the Philippines. We need a fresh awareness of the great missionaries who went before us and we must re-discover their motivation. Like them we must imitate Mary the Queen of Apostles and be 'vibrant with zeal.

1. Every missionary must be on fire with love for Jesus. What Father Poupinel told some of our sisters in the Marist family, the S.M. S. M. sisters, applies also to us;

The sisters will strive to keep alive and to grow each day in a tender and generous love for our Lord, for whom they have left all. 1bis love will be their consolation, their healing, their strength.

It was above all on the cross that Jesus showed his inexhaustible love for us. To return that love is a powerful motive for any missionary. One great missionary who was clearly in the consciousness of the first Marist missionaries was St. Francis Xavier. Colin several times· held him up for our imitation. Xavier shared with· us what the crucified Jesus meant for him.

2.One of the two great Marian texts for the mystery of the Cross is:

AND THERE STOOD BY THE CROSS OF JESUS MARY HIS MOTHER

Mary showed us the place where we must stand as heralds of the Gospel. Jt is our turangawaewae (a place to stand), as the Maoris call it. We stand by Jesus in his agony when we are true to our Marist vocation to be instruments of divine mercy. We are true to that vocation when we stand by the wounded, the disadvantaged, and those whom the Church's work of evangelisation does not reach. We are called to stand by them no matter how much the image of Christ appears disfigured in them. Through us the salvific love of Christ can bring its transforming power.

When we stand by the most abandoned and neglected we are fulfilling our vocation in another way as well. Marists are not monks. We are called to be contemplatives in a world of action. The presence of Christ must be part of our consciousness. We are in Christ's presence when we stand by the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for, and we contemplate Christ in them. Jesus said: 'Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.' As Mother Teresa said ‘Doing it to him, we are praying the work; for in doing it with him, doing it for him, doing it to him, we are loving him; and in loving him we come more and more into that oneness with him and we allow him to live his life in us. And this living of Christ is holiness.'

3. The decisive clash between good and evil took place when Jesus of Nazareth, whose life was dominated by love, was crucified by sinful· men. This was not the fulfilment of some arbitrary design. It took place as the natural outcome of Jesus' fidelity to the mission given Him by the Father. The mission the Father has given us came to us through His son Jesus and through the most gracious choice of Mary.Mary the Mother of Mercies sends us on her mission to bring to the world the compassion of God the Father of Mercies.

In the time for the new foundation of the Society, we need the courage to follow our mission wherever it leads, no matter how mysterious the path, no matter how much the journey demands, no matter if it leads to a cross. We trust in the love and wisdom of the Father as Jesus and Mary did. To be united to them is 'to live in fidelity to the will of the Father. For Jesus fidelity was more than a word or an inspiring concept. For him it was a reality to which he gave witness when he died on the cross. As Chiara says so constantly, the ideal of the movement is not something just to be talked about. It is something to be lived. And however unobtrusively they work, those who live it will be agents of transformation.

Prayer – “O Deus, ego amo te”

O God, I love thee, I love thee­
Not out of hope of heaven for me
Nor fearing not to love and be
In the everlasting burning.
Thou, thou, my Jesus, after me
Didst reach thine arms out dying,
For my sake sufferedst nails and lance,

Mocked and marred countenance,
Sorrows passing number,
Sweat and care and cumber,
Yea and death, and this for· me,
And thou couldst see me sinning:
Then I, why should not I love thee,
Jesus, so much in love with me?
Not for heaven's· sake; not to be
Out of hell by loving thee;
Not for any gains I see;
But just the way that thou didst me
I do love and I will love thee:
What must I love thee, Lord, for then?
For being my king and God.
Amen.



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Date
26 September 2022

Tag 1
Teaching

Tag 2
Spirituality

Tag 3
Formation

Source Name
Chiara Lubich

Source URL
http://www.maristlaityaustralia.com...

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