The Will as Hung on the Cross

                                     The Will as Hung on the Cross

 

It is the most ignoble of signs that condition the mind when the mind left untended is given the chance to think. When the powers that be produce sentence upon a well-known figure, that figure becomes a well-known threat to the powers that be. And yet, it is exactly here that the cross of Christ resides upon the paradox that he that should lose his life will find it. It is at this juncture that the folly and whim of a dying man redeems the whole world.

 

God forbid it to be any other way and yet we, like the nobles, consider this way folly too. Maybe not in the same way that they did but lived out in our reality is the simple statement “ I, will not serve.” It is as if we say, your way might be the cross dear Lord, but not yet. Not yet.

 

Then when, when do we accept our cross when do we follow the Master unto death? Maybe it should be a question of why and not when. Fine. Why do not we follow the Master unto death?

Simply put, because it is death and of death we are deathly afraid. Giving up something material is not what Lent is made of either. Lent is a preparation for death you see and the culmination of the Good Friday service is about dying to yourself in order to resurrect with the Lord on Easter Sunday. There is, no, other, way!

 

But enough of preaching- the choir is tired. I will shake things up a bit then and let you on to a little secret. It smells of the nuance of the divine will and though I am hardly adequate to speak of such things I figure if you’ve gotten this far in the article you might want to stick along for the ride.

 

I will quote at length from a little known Dominican preacher so as to take the burden off myself. You can hate him all you want for he has now passed on into that great life and has no need of your comments. So I quote:

 

“ But for the soul that lives in God and finds its refuge in Him, everything is different…I understand nothing of this, but I accept whatever comes from the hand of God, certainly it would do no good to turn from him, where would I go? The Lord has given me everything, and now he has taken everything from me. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

 

 Dominicans have the proud stature of being those who only answer to themselves. Because they are in Christ and only answer as God wishes. It is one of them, the order of preachers, that sparked this conversation in the first place. Stone him then, not me, I am merely sending the message. And the message is, awake, lyre and harp, awake, the dawn, awake to the cross and your share of it.

 

It is fitting this lent to walk with the Lord those thousand paces to Calvary.  It is more than fitting to burn this article for all its worth. But it is never fitting to deny your cross, a cross that only you can bear. God be loved-