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 parents and teachers, fight with his brothers and schoolmates. 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 press the cross to our hearts, that its power might be imprinted there—the power of self-emptying love. When the Cross is pressed to the heart, it teaches us how God loves us, and it teaches us how to endure trial, temptation, and suffering. The devil tempts us toward pride, resentment, despair, and self-will. The Cross teaches us humility, forgiveness, hope, and surrender to the Father.
We venerate the cross today in some outward sign of devotion, so that we may venerate it every day in our actions, in our attitudes, in our speech. Self-emptying love is to mark everything we do, because Jesus self-emptying love has marked us.
We press the cross to our hearts because we have been pressed to God’s heart, by God himself. In the Passion of the Lord, we see just how near God has drawn to us. He has not loved us from a safe distance. He has entered into our suffering, our betrayal, our loneliness, our fear, even into death itself. The Cross is the proof that there is no human misery Jesus has refused to touch, no sinner is unwilling to seek.
Today we offer solemn intercessions on behalf of the world and the Church, pressing our needs and struggles to his cross and those of the whole world. 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, and to bear the message of his love to a world in desperate need of it for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.
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