In the sacred days ahead—the Holy Triduum, beginning this Thursday—each of us has the opportunity to encounter the cross in a new way. But will we, actually?  
 
To help answer this question, we’d like to do three things: 1) Share the highlights of a recent homily we heard, 2) Tell a story, and 3) Share a challenge for you and your family. 
 
First, The Homily (audio/podcast). Fr. James Hudgins of Ashburn, VA, shared these six points last week:

• “The hardest spiritual lesson to learn is that the healing your soul needs comes from the trustful, faithful embracing of the cross that you have been sent.” 

• “Nobody likes the cross. Even Jesus prayed to His Heavenly Father, ‘Lord, spare me from this.’” 

• “The cross is how God heals.” 

• “God’s going to use the curse [of the cross] itself as a means to bring us healing.”   
• “Healing and life don’t come from the idea of carrying a cross. Healing and life come from actually carrying it.” 
• “If we are wise, we will look back on our cross, even now, with great faith and embrace it, and believe that God is using that very cross to bring us home.” 

The Story (definitely ours…and likely similar to yours): In our nearly 24 years of marriage, we can look back on a number of crosses—including draining health crises, unexpected deaths of loved ones, the sudden loss of a job, a terrifying barn fire, and tough seasons in our marriage and family—that our Lord has allowed us to carry, and we can say Amen to everything Fr. Hudgins said: 

• We didn’t like these crosses—and we still don’t. Our fight-or-flight hardwiring makes us want to resist these crosses, or run the other way.  

• These crosses have often felt like a curse…and not the pathway to healing and life. 

• Actually carrying these crosses in a trustful, faithful, and embracing way is the hardest spiritual lesson we’ve ever encountered in our lives (and yes, we’re still learning it). 

The Challenge. As much as we might wish for it, the coming Triduum won’t bring a moment to hit “pause” on the rest of life—caring for our children, preparing Easter Sunday outfits and meals, etc. But what if we tried to find at least 15 minutes a day in these final days before Easter—especially on Good Friday—for one or more of the following?

• Enter into some silence and prayerfully make a list of the crosses which the Lord is currently allowing in your life, as a means of your own healing and new life in Him. 

• In a time of prayer, join Jesus by praying, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Mt. 26:39).   

• Then, invite the Lord to show you how to accept each of these crosses in a more trustful, faithful, and embracing way. 

What if “the hardest spiritual lesson” could gradually become more familiar, more recognizable, more “embrace-able”? What if the Lord—in the sacred days ahead, and throughout the upcoming 7 weeks of Easter—could allow us to break through to a new intimacy with Him, one that trusts in the crosses He allows for our healing and new life? 
 
When the sun rises this Easter morning and our families begin the most joyous day of the year, let’s thank Jesus for accepting the cross and transforming it forever. Let’s thank and praise Him anew for the possibility to do likewise with our own crosses today, by His grace.