I will not be presiding here at liturgies this weekend because I am witnessing my oldest niece’s wedding at St. Agnes Church in Jefferson, New Hampshire. My good friend, Father John Lavin, recently retired, will be here to take my place. This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross which reminds us of the central symbol of our faith. Because of Christ, profound love of the cross is the sign of our salvation and the cause of our joy. The crucifixion demonstrates that God loves us more than life itself. And the triumph of Jesus’ cross becomes the triumph of our crosses as well.
Sheila Cassidy is an American nurse who was jailed and tortured in Chile. Out of that experience, she wrote the following reflection:
“I believe, no pain is lost. No tear unmarked, no cry of anguish dies unheard, lost in the hail of gunfire or blanked out by the padded cell. I believe that pain and prayer are somehow saved, processed, stored, used in the Divine Economy. The bloodshed in Salvador will irrigate the heart of some financier a million miles away. The terror, pain, despair, swamped by lava, flood or earthquake will be caught up like mist and fall again, a gentle rain on arid hearts or souls despairing in the back streets of Brooklyn.”
This weekend we ponder on how our God brings life out of what seems like death. In all of our lives there are daily crosses and resurrections. Let us be there for one another as we bear our crosses and participate in the working out of salvation in our world.
Fr. Bob Hawkins - September 13, 2008
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