A 5th Sunday of Lent Thought About The Cross
The stark and brutal reality of Our Lord's Cross begins to come into
sharper focus on this Fifth Sunday of Lent. In less than two weeks,
Christians around the world will enter into the Passion and Death of Our
Lord Jesus Christ. It's time to both anticipate and make plans for Holy
Week, now one week away.
The traditional calendar of the Catholic Church calls this "Passion
Sunday," the first Sunday of Passiontide. The tradition of covering
statues in purple can still be observed as it once was for centuries
(although this practice is rare these days). Doing so mortifies our
sense of sight, helping us to focus in a more singular way on the events
so dramatically and movingly captured in the Stations of the Cross.
Whether your parish church covers statues or not, here's something
written by Father Edward Leen that might help us all keep our hearts and
minds where they should be during these waning days of Lent:
“The Cross of Christ is not merely a reminder of a historical fact;
nor is it merely the presentation of a dogmatic truth; nor is it only a
revelation of the awful gravity of sin and a warning of the rigors of
justice with which it is chastised; it is not even primarily an eloquent
plea for gratitude and love. It is, of course, all that, but it is
besides, something of yet greater moment. It is above all else a
sacrifice, which whilst redeeming mankind, is, at the same time the
unfolding of a theory of human existence for the instruction of mankind.
It both restores life to man and explains the conditions which underlie
that life.
A contemplation of the Passion, no matter how sympathetic
it may be, no matter how deeply it may move the emotions, will be in
large measure robbed of its fruits, unless it issues for the
contemplative in a clear realization and a practical grasp of the lesson
the Passion is meant to convey. Each scene of the sufferings of Jesus
as it offers itself to the imagination and the thought of the Christian
must have, as the permanent background of all the words that so often
reinforced and summarized His ascetical instructions to the people:
“Whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My
disciple” (Luke 14:27). The Cross is the symbol of the Christian way of
living. It teaches that sacrifice is the essential condition of
attaining the good the Savior won for men at the cost of His Precious
Blood; and that sacrifice is the lot not only of the Savior, but of the
saved as well. The Cross is not only for Christ, it is for the Christian
also. The Cross is a sign, as a book is a sign, for men to read. It
gives all Christians to understand that the Christian calling demands
that each follower of Christ develop in himself that attitude of soul
which was Christ’s, and which found its most significant expression in
the Passion…”
I hope Father Leens comments will help to enrich and enliven our souls
during these final days of Lent. Taking the time to contemplate the
details of Our Lord's suffering should help us to more deeply understand
why we've persisted in the practice our Lenten discipline of prayer,
fasting, and almsgiving. These particular words of Father Leen bear
repeating as they remind us that we are (or should be) literally united
to Our Lord's Cross in our daily lives. Perhaps their repetition will
allow us to recall our true calling - the way of the Cross - even in the
midst of our busy work days this week.
"Each scene of the sufferings of Jesus as it offers itself to the
imagination and the thought of the Christian must have, as the permanent
background of all the words that so often reinforced and summarized His
ascetical instructions to the people: “Whosoever doth not carry his
cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27)...The Cross is not only for
Christ, it is for the Christian also."
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