Holy Week is upon us. Every day of this week has important themes to encounter, but I am thinking a lot about Holy Friday. I'd like us to consider our own response to the cross of Christ and to our own particular crosses in life.
A Story from My Grandmother's Life
I would like to share with you a painful story from the life of my grandmother. She was born over a hundred years ago. Life was hard, but it was made harder still due to the selfishness of men. She had two girls and a boy, and she loved Jesus and her children the best she could. Her boy survived the Vietnam war, but like so many, he was never the same. I was a small child when we got the phone call that the rough crowd my uncle fell in with had robbed him and taken his life. Weeks later, grandma sat in the courtroom for the trial of the men who committed the crime. She kept softly repeating, "They killed my boy."
This story may seem harsh for a church newsletter or a Pascha reflection, but this is a cross that my grandmother bore. Despite this cross in her life, I remember her as being caring, kind, and loving. I hope you will say a prayer for her and my uncle.
The Cross: From Torture to Healing
Sometimes we may encounter Holy Week and Holy Friday in a casual manner, but we need to remember that at face value, saying, "Take up your cross," is an awful thing to say. The cross was an awful thing that Jesus transfigured into a healing thing. The cross was one of the most brutal instruments of torture and death the Romans could dream up. We forget how crazy it is for St. Paul and the early Christians to say they glory in the cross. Can you imagine wearing a beautiful little necklace with an electric chair pendant dangling from it? That is how strange glorying in the cross seemed to the ancient world.
I also share this story because I know the crosses you face in life are difficult. Your life is very painful at times, and healthy Christianity is honest about that. There is nothing easy about taking up a cross, and we are invited to join Christ in transfiguring this instrument of death into a tree of life. He endured the cross and did not sin in response, and we are invited to do the same. In addition to their own suffering, everyone, whether they know it or not, has to respond to the cross of Christ.
The Orthodox Three-bar cross depicts this. The bottom bar points down on one side warning us to not be like the man on the cross next to Christ that rejected Him, and the bar points up on the other side inviting us to be like the other thief on the cross next to Christ who repented and joined Christ in Paradise.
Mary's Response to the Cross
Also, consider Mary, Jesus' mother, standing at the cross, which we read about in John 19. You have likely considered how terrible that must have been for her. How did she respond to the cross? We do not fully know because the Scriptures don't tell us that. It is possible that Mary could have despaired and become bitter. She knew that Jesus died for the sins of the world. She knew that He was on the cross because of your sins and my sins, so she could say of us, "They killed my boy."
Have you ever told Mary how thankful and sorry you are that her Son died for you? Church History tells us that Mary did not despair, but like Jesus, she forgives and she loves. We will sing about her on Holy Friday evening, and as the hymn, "The Angel Cried," tells us, ultimately she rejoiced and became radiant in her son's resurrection.
Now, the question moves to us. How will we respond to the cross of Christ?
Originally published in the Holy Apostles E-bulletin. Subscribe here.
