Where is the Cross?

Take up your cross everyday and follow me

This is a very familiar phrase. If you want to be my disciple, you must pick up your cross and follow me, and do so each day. Christ did this and showed us by example. Each day He picked up his cross in the form of the injustices he confronted, dining with the sinners, mingling with the lepers, and walking against the tides of the pharisees and scribes.

On Good Friday, Jesus literally picked up the wooden cross and climbed the slope of Calvary. There He was stripped and nailed to the cross on which He died. Shortly after, He was taken down from the cross and buried. The witnesses descended Calvary and left the bear cross behind. On the day of the resurrection no one talked about the cross.

For the last forty days of lent, the cross some of us picked up each day was giving up eating or doing something. We did so with the anxiety for Lent to be over, so we can return to our normal habits, that is, lay down the cross. Lent is over. Easter is here. The season continues, but where is the cross? Did we abandon it on Calvary when we ascended on Good Friday?

In Cross, a poem in Garden of Thoughts, the author has this advise:

Find the cross of your life!
It is in your spouse, kids, foes,
friends, co-workers, neighbors;
Everywhere.

Accept it as it is!
You cannot change its shape,
weight or symmetry
Not even its composition.

Venerate it always!
This is the joy of being human
Humanity is across.

Find the cross of your life;
It’s not an obstacle.
Accept the cross of your life;
It’s the Master’s identity.
Venerate the cross of your life;
It’s the bridge to salvation.

The cross is not a seasonal crony. It is a lifetime commitment. Every day is Good Friday. Every day is Easter Sunday.
May you draw joy, peace and grace from the veneration of your cross throughout this Easter Season and the days to come.