The Queen: Editorial: Victory Only Through the Cross
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Victory Only Through the Cross
As we approach the climax of the entire liturgical year, the Great Easter Triduum, our thoughts center on the Victorious Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who could ever have even imagined that Jesus, the Eternal Wisdom, would choose the horror of crucifixion to bring redemptive joy to this world? Cicero tells us that the term “crucifixion” should not even be used in polite society. So ugly is its barbaric cruelty. No Roman citizen, no matter the viciousness of his crime, could ever he nailed to a cross. To die upon the tree was the punishment reserved to the barbarian, the slave, the foreigner. And this was the choice of Jesus our redeemer.
The Greatest Secret
“The Cross,” writes Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, “is, according to my belief, the greatest secret of the King, the greatest mystery of Eternal Wisdom”. A mystery, for it exceeds the abilities of the human mind to comprehend the scandal of the Cross. On that first Good Friday, creation itself writhes in pain, trembles in shock, turning day into night.
“By a single word He can annihilate and create . . . He has but to will and all is done.” Yet God chose to redeem us through the Cross. “He perceives something which is a source of scandal and horror to Jews and an object of foolishness to pagans. Our Lord sees a piece of vile and contemptible wood which is used to humiliate and torture the most wicked and wretched . It is upon this cross that He casts His eyes; He cherishes it more than all that is great and resplendent in heaven and earth. He decides that it will be the instrument of his conquests, the adornment of His royal state … Jesus espoused the Cross with indescribable love”. (LEW 167-168).
The Lord Comes For Sinners
By choosing to conquer through the Cross, the Lord tells us that He has come for sinners. Not for the righteous who, like the Romans of old, scorn the cross. His victorious dying is for the slave, the sinner, the foreigner, the homeless, the little ones, all those whom the world crucifies.
In order to be renewed and re-formed by the mystery of Holy Week, we must first admit that we are guilty and need the dying of Jesus to attain eternal life. We must become little ones, accepting that we are sinners, homeless, yearning for a happiness beyond the possibilities of this earth. Only then can we be empty of self and filled with the glory of God. Even more: we will experience a conversion which turns fear of the Cross into a longing to be one with Christ in His victorious dying.
It is that mysterious love of the Cross which is the special grace of Holy Week. Not a masochistic yearning for pain, not a seeking out of crosses of our own invention, but a peaceful acknowledgement that union with the Cross – even in the midst of tears – is intrinsic to life in Christ Jesus. The conversion demanded by the Paschal celebration calls forth not only a personal confession with its healing forgiveness but also an acceptance of the crosses which are part and parcel of our vocation.
The Grace to Recognize that the Cross is Victory
So that the mystery of the Cross may be lived, Montfort Spirituality offers especially two important insights. The first is the grace to recognize that the Cross is victory. Easter does not come after Good Friday; rather, the glory of the victorious Lord is found only in the Cross. It is the tree of the Cross which flowers into Easter glory. Without the cross, there is no victory. To share in the Cross, therefore, is to share in the victory of Christ Jesus.
Editorial
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In order to be renewed and re-formed by the mystery of Holy Week, we must first admit that we are guilty and need the dying of Jesus to attain eternal life. We must become little ones. Accepting that we are sinners, homeless, yearning for a happiness beyond the possibilities of this earth. Only then can we be empty of self and filled with the glory of God. Even more: we will experience a conversion which turns fear of the Cross into a longing to be one with Christ in His victorious dying.
It is that mysterious love of the Cross which is the special grace of Holy Week.
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The Unique Role of Our Lady
The second insight offered by the spirituality of the Father from Montfort is the unique role of Our Lady in the Paschal Mystery: “Even at His death she had to be present so that He might be united with her in one sacrifice and be immolated by her consent to the eternal Father . . it was Mary who nursed Him, fed Him, cared for Him, reared Him and sacrificed Him for us”. (TD 18). It is through Mary’s Yes that He came into this world; it is through her Yes that He offers Himself victoriously on Calvary. In the plan of God, there is no Paschal Mystery without the Yes of Mary to the redemptive incarnation and all that flows from it. Devotion to Mary can only enhance our incorporation into the dying and the rising of the Lord.
The Best Favors and Graces from Heaven are Crosses
Moreover, “The most faithful servants of the Blessed Virgin, being her greatest favorites, receive from her the best graces and favors from heaven which are crosses . . . but no one will ever manage to carry a heavy Cross or to carry it joyfully and perseveringly, without a trusting devotion to Our Lady, who is the very tenderness of the Cross”. (TD 154). Devotion to Mary can only strengthen our resolve to bear our crosses faithfully.
During this year, let the Paschal Mystery be for each one of the readers of The Queen, the time for praise and gratitude to God for the redemptive gift of the victorious Cross on which hangs our Redemption. May the glory of the Cross lead us, through Mary, to deeper personal conversion and the fulfillment of the promise we made at our consecration: “to carry my cross after Him for the rest of my life and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before”. Only on this foundation can we build the City of Cod.
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Vol. xxx Month 2023
