Join Fr. Dan Cambra, MIC, in person or online, for the 15th annual Mercy for Souls Conference on Saturday, Sept. 13, at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy. This year's theme is "Exaltation the Cross of Christ by Our Lives and Loves," and the day begins with Mass at 9 a.m. Details here.
By Fr. Dan Cambra, MIC
On Sept. 14, the Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and on Sept. 15, the Church celebrates Our Lady of Sorrows.
What a mystery! After all, the great, ancient arguments against belief in God and His Church are the mysteries of evil and suffering. How can a good God permit evil to exist and to cause such suffering?
(Of course, the answer to this is that a good God who is love has created free creatures capable of truly loving Him and each other, but that freedom to love also means freedom not to love, freedom to choose to do evil things to God and each other. Hence the mess we’re in.)
But that answer is just words to someone in the middle of suffering, especially if they are the victims of evil. So it’s noteworthy that the Church daringly has a feast to celebrate — more, to exalt — the Holy Cross. Crosses, after all, are instruments of torture. The Cross is holy because of the One who was crucified on it, not because there is something intrinsically holy about that implement of Roman torture. And yet in that mystery is the heart of the reason for the feast.
Reason for the season
In His Passion, death, and Resurrection, Jesus who is God takes evil and suffering by the throat, so to speak, and makes of them means of grace. He doesn’t just allow the devil to do his worst. No, it’s deeper than that. He allows the devil to do his worst, and at some point the devil is confronted by the terrible realization that the more he attacks the Body of Christ, the more thoroughly he is defeated. Indeed, all the works of hell become means of grace and salvation, if only we who suffer them unite them in prayer and Liturgy to the Cross of Christ.
Does that sound weird? It should. It was so weird that the devil didn’t understand what was being done to his rebellion until it was too late, until God was dead, and on Easter, came back to life in glory (see 1 Cor 1:18).
It’s also how our suffering becomes redemptive, how our enduring of evil becomes a powerful force for good.
Seek justice and peace
Now, let me make clear — the Church does not call on us to simply accept the evil or injustice of this world without ever speaking up or doing something to fix it. Look at great saints like St. Catherine of Siena, who wrote fierce and faithful letters to popes until the papacy returned to Rome from Avignon. Look at St. Thomas More, who did his best as a politician to serve king and country until finally he had to choose between God and king. Look at St. John the Baptist, who called out the evils done by the rulers of the Holy Land in his day, and suffered martyrdom for it.
We have the Scriptures, showing us what sort of prophetic witness Christians are called to bear, and we have Magisterial teaching, drawing deep on Tradition, showing us what Catholic social teaching has to say about how the world should be structured for justice, mercy, and peace.
Take up your cross
But even with all that, we know from history and the lives of the saints that we all will have different sorts of martyrdom to bear. Some are called to be “red” martyrs, suffering bloody martyrdom, remaining faithful to Jesus even to the shedding of their own blood at the hands of the powerful.
Most of us are called to be “white” martyrs, unbloody martyrs, taking up our crosses every day and following Jesus through the daily difficulties and even great suffering.
We live in a fallen world, after all, and for all its beauty and essential goodness, there generally comes a time where the grace of God isn’t welcome (see Jn 16:33).
The science of the Cross is the science of our liberation from sin, death, and hell. The science of the Cross is the science of our reparation for the temporal punishment due for our sins. It is by the science of the Cross that our suffering may be united to the suffering of Christ, allowing His grace then to come into our lives, our world, our needs and good intentions. It is by the science of the Cross that we too may take up our crosses and carry them, may join our Lord on His Cross as members of the Body of Christ Crucified. It is by the science of the Cross that we may assist in the salvation, sanctification, and transformation of the world.
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church” (Col 1:24).
The Cross is our strength! The Cross is our banner! The Cross is our passport and our proof of God’s love for us all.
Sign of Salvation
Here is our salvation, and the tool of our salvation. Here is the throne on which Christ rested, from which He judged the world, and found it wanting salvation, which He gave. Jesus reigns from the throne of the Cross, from the altar of the Cross, from the place where He stands now and in eternity as the Lamb who was slain (see Rev 5:6).
And Our Lady of Sorrows stood at the base of the Cross, accompanied her Son along the Stations of the Cross as the Passion happened, and, pious tradition tells us, continued to accompany her Son by inventing the Stations of the Cross after He had ascended into Heaven.
She was her Son’s help and support in His suffering; she will do the same for the members of the Mystical Body of Christ, for us all. Saint Faustina witnessed her assisting the Holy Souls in Purgatory:
I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls call her “The Star of the Sea.” She brings them refreshment. I wanted to talk with them some more, but my Guardian Angel beckoned me to leave. We went out of that prison of suffering. [I heard an interior voice] which said, My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it. Since that time, I am in closer communion with the suffering souls (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 20).
Let us pray:
Mother of God, Mother of Mercy, do not leave us alone in our sorrows. Accompany us. Stand at the foot of our cross, and gaze upon us with your maternal compassion. Help us with your prayers and your tears. Do not leave us, even if we leave you and your Son. Do not give up on us. If you will hold on to us with your prayers and intercession, we shall never be without hope. Amen.
May God bless you!
Father Dan Cambra, MIC, is director of the Holy Souls Sodality.
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