There was a young boy, about 8 years
old, who liked to have his own way, and would become very angry
anytime his will would be contradicted. He would talk back to his
teachers, fight with his brothers, he was in a perpetual state of
pouting and sourness and selfishness. He would be disciplined in
school and at home, but nothing seemed to alter his behavior or
attitude, and his parents began to despair.
One day, there was an unexpected
change. His selfishness seemed to entirely disappear; he became one
of the most obedient and gentle children. His parents began to
wonder about this change of behavior, and then they noticed that from
time to time, the boy would put his hand to his chest, and press
something under his shirt close to his heart.
The boy’s father asked what he was
doing. The boy said, just something grandpa gave me to help me. The
boy took out a crucifix which hung from a thin chain which he had
been wearing underneath his shirt. “When I am angry that I’m not
getting my way, I press this image to my heart, I think of what Jesus
suffered, and then I find it easy to be good.”
Today we press the cross to our hearts.
An eastern orthodox saint named St.
Symeon the Theologian who was a monk in the 11th century
wrote, “The only way to protect oneself against the devil is by
constant remembrance of God: this remembrance must be imprinted in
the heart by the power of the Cross, thus rendering the mind firm and
unyielding”.
Today we remember; we remember what he
suffered for us. We press his cross to our hearts, and discover,
that first, we were pressed to God’s heart, by God himself.
In the Old Covenant, it used to be
thought that anything unclean touching something clean would render
both unclean. In the New Covenant of Christ’s Passion and Death,
it is the other way around. All the filth of the world—all the
injustice and cruelty—all the evil in men’s hearts which comes in
contact with Him is made clean by His blood—all is made pure, which
comes in contact with the infinitely pure one. Through this contact,
the filth of the world is truly absorbed, wiped out, and transformed
in the pain of infinite love.
God brings good out of evil—he
transforms it in the crucible of his own heart. Which is why today
is truly called Good Friday. For today, God takes all the suffering
and evil of the world upon himself, and purifies it through his
precious blood.
Today we offer
solemn intercessions on behalf of the world and the Church, pressing
our needs and struggles to his cross. We also solemnly venerate the
wood of the cross, we press the cross to our lips, or our foreheads,
to remember his great love, and that we may be rendered firm and
unyielding in the face of temptation and confirmed in the desire to
carry our crosses in union with the Son of God, for the Glory of God
and salvation of souls.
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