Eve of Holy Cross Day

Saints and Seasons

I have been feeling of late that life is holey, as in full of holes. “It’s not FAIR!” is the perpetual lament of children. And it’s no t fair.  To paraphrase:  “Life happens.”  A lot. That’s just the nature of life. There is so much that is broken, lacking, sullied in our world, either through our social and political choices, our personal sins, or by the blind hubris of unintended consequences. A spouse dies. A son becomes  mentally ill.  Personal relations are strained and broken. Climate change results in shrinking glaciers, rising seas, fire and floods. In Washington, our  politics are frozen in gridlock, and at home, there is brokenness and strife.  

Heartache is a reality in our lives.  But, so is joy. Life is not just holey, but holy as well, if we have the eyes to see. It’s a matter of focus. Sin, suffering and death seem woven into the very fabric of life. But as the music director at my childhood church always said,  don’t put the em-PHA-sis on the wrong sy-LA-ble. 

I am grateful that on 14th of September, year after year,  just as life begins to rev up again after summer. the church pauses to celebrate Holy Cross Day  - to take stock, to once again get the em--PHA-sis right. Otherwise, life becomes burdensome, unbearable. 

Here we are reminded that life is not primarily about me and my plans, pleasure or desires. We are reminded that Jesus told us, then showed us, that the Way of the Cross is, paradoxically,  the “way of life and peace.”  The cross remains a stumbling block and foolishness for others - and sometimes for us  as well. But as followers of Christ, and as people filled with his Spirit, what we profess and know it to be true, is that with his life and in his death, Jesus “destroyed death and made the whole creation new. (Eucharistic Prayer D)

Somehow, suffering accepted is transformed and suffering united with the suffering of Christ is life-giving. I can only know this a little, and with my heart and not my head, but when I do, life is transfigured with the light of the cross. 

 We go on waiting, knowing You have come,

Yet we are not ready to be transformed. 

Send us Your Spirit and we’ll carry on. 

The day is long ahead of us and 

we’ll carry on, and we’ll carry on.

 

From Calm is the Night 

by the Monks of Weston Priory 

Louise Buck 

September 2013