READ THE HOMILY:
Friends of mine have three boys. Once when they were planning to go to Valleyfair, and the youngest, Bode age 3, was so excited. He said, “This is going to be the best day ever.” But on the day of the trip, one of the older boys woke up feeling sick, so the family had to cancel the trip. Bode moped around all morning sighing, “This is the worst day ever.” Later that day, as Bode and his Dad found a mouse dead in a mouse trap. Bode said, I guess that mouse is having a worser day than I am.”
We have all had a “worst day ever.” And maybe you have had that lately, especially from the pressures and fear of COVID 19. I am also amazed and humble when I talk to folks who are in bad situations . . . for example: cancer, broken heart, addiction issues . . . and they say, “Well, there are people worse off than me.” Or “having a worse day” as Bode would say.
That’s why the cross is such a powerful symbol for those with faith, not only today but any day. If you are able, pause this video for a moment and go get a cross to have before you. The difference between a cross and a crucifix is simple . . . a crucifix has the image of Jesus on it, a cross does not. Either one that you have before you is fine.
The cross is meant to be more than a wall decoration or a piece of jewelry . . . it is the classic reminder of what suffering is . . . our suffering . . . all suffering.
For a moment now, I want you to picture your personal wound or wounds.
Perhaps close your eyes.
Name that secret sorrow, burden or loss.
Think of that “aching need for healing” that you have right now.
Maybe it is a personality flaw, we all have one.
St. Paul did, and writes about it in 2 Corinthians 12:7.
Perhaps it’s what keeps you up at night, makes you toss and turn.
It could be that deep doubt you carry, that unanswered prayer or heaviness in your heart.
Whatever it is . . . imagine that Jesus has placed that thing (or things) into his heart, and then he stretches out his arms to allow himself to be nailed . . . unto that cross before you.
It’s as if God were saying, “I know this is what you are experiencing . . . this pain.
Don’t run from it.
Learn from it, as I did. Hang there for a while, as I did. It will be your teacher.
Rather than losing life, you will be gaining a larger life. It is the way through.”
And now think of the pain that others, close to you, are carrying.
Their wounds, their struggles, their fears.
Now think of those you don’t know, but have heard about . . .
those who carry the COVID 19 virus,
those who currently dying from it,
those who are trying their best to assist them, help them, cure them.
Etty Hillesum (1914–1943), a young, Dutch, Jewish woman who died in Auschwitz, truly believed her suffering was also the suffering of God. She wrote, “I am not alone in my tiredness or sickness or fears, but at one with millions of others from many centuries, and it is all part of life.”
Carl Jung wrote, "The whole world is God's suffering . . . every act of human suffering is a participation in the eternal crucifixion of the One Christ. There is only one suffering, as it were, and we are all participants in it."