These last couple days we celebrated as a Church the Triumph of the Cross (September 14) and Our Lady of Sorrows (September 15).  These two feast days seem to the secular world to be foolish and even depressing.  One day we celebrate an instrument of death and the next day we focus on a mothers pierced heart after watching her son get murdered.  These can be super depressing if we stay at the same level as the secular world.  In the secular world death is feared, suffering is avoided, sin is downplayed, and community is a necessary evil; however, as faithful disciples of Jesus, we should view these days as a sign of hope and motivation to continue living as faithful disciples.

When we celebrate the triumph of the Cross we first need to look past the Cross and focus on the resurrection.  What makes the Cross triumphant is that through the Cross we gain eternal life!  The Cross isn’t triumphant because it killed Jesus.  When people were crucified on the cross they all successfully died.  If the cross didn’t work as an instrument of death it wouldn’t have been used.  Jesus’ death ALONE is not what makes the Cross triumphant; rather, it’s that he died AND ROSE FROM THE DEAD!  This is why we can’t focus only on the “death” part.  St. Paul said that if Christ didn’t rise from the dead, then all our worship is pointless (1 Corinthians 15:14).  The Cross is celebrated NOT as an instrument of death; instead, we celebrate the Cross as the doorway to eternal life.  

It is through our own sufferings and taking up our own Cross (Matthew 16:24) that we gain the same victory as Jesus: we too will rise from the dead.  We see this perfectly in the many women and men who gave of themselves as martyrs over the centuries; however, martyrdom isn’t the only way we take up our Cross.  It’s through the small daily sufferings of life: waiting forever in line at the DMV; eating our meal even though it isn’t cooked to our fancy; putting up with the idiosyncrasies of our family and friends no matter how much they annoy us; letting someone vent/yell at us even though we did nothing wrong and not responding with the same anger; showing up to volunteer at an event even though we’re tired from working all day; and the list goes on and on.  This is how we take up our Cross and follow Jesus to eternal life.  It doesn’t matter if we have first or third world problems.  Suffering is suffering.  

We now come to our Blessed Mother who we celebrate a day later under the name Our Lady of Sorrows.  Mary suffered with her Son on the Cross.  She obviously didn’t die; but, she stood and watched her Son suffer.  This brought great suffering to Mary.  Ask any parent who had to unfortunately burry their child.  Its not natural for a parent to burry a child!  No parent ever wants to do that.  The Church always looks to Mary as the first and model Disciple and we learn from her what it means to follow her son, Jesus.  Mary didn’t run from her suffering.  Mary didn’t drown her sorrows in worldly things.  Mary didn’t even complain.  She accepted her suffering and the will of the Father and, most importantly, she trusted.  When we’re in the midst of our own suffering we too need to trust.  

Friends, trusting in God is hard.  No one ever said it would be easy.  I can attest in my own life that suffering sucks and when things in life begin to go wrong it’s not easy turning to the Lord and trusting in Him.  I fail at this constantly.  I’m working on it; but, I still fail.  If you fail too, know that you’re not alone.  I’m walking the same journey with you, I’m failing with you, and together we will be triumphant together.  The trick is to look past the Cross.  Mary was able to trust because she knew the Cross wasn’t the end.  Mary knew that the resurrection was coming.  We too need to focus on the resurrection and eternal life.  So, lets pray together for each other.  Let’s continue to grow as faithful disciples of Jesus.  Lets look to Mary and follow her lead so we can become more like her Son, Jesus.