As preached by Brother Marc
Holy Wisdom Churc
Glory to Jesus Christ!
We heard it all our lives; and there is no
escaping it; following Christ includes the Cross. The Road of the cross is
narrow, but it follows a solid path, and it has clear directional pointers:
love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; love expecting nothing
in return; help others; keep praying; keep good company; make peace and rejoice.
Negotiating this Road will bring us to deeper levels
of the human heart, to maturity, wisdom and beauty of spirit. It is not a stroll
down the road.
When the 16th century Spanish Carmelite
friar John of the Cross, was nearly beaten to death, (it was a long story,) he asked,
in desperation, “What is—grace?” And he heard the reply, “Everything that
happens.” Everything that is includes our crosses, and even these are a stimulus
to grow in the image of Christ.
How do we experience grace and the desire to take
that narrow Road? It all seems too hard. It feels impossible. It includes pain
and suffering. Don’t we have enough difficulties, some of them unexpected? At
times we are our own worst enemies. We avoid the challenges of the cross; or we
barely endure them. We make ourselves feel guilty. Even the apostles asked
Christ, “Who then, Lord, can be saved?”
We forget the goodness of our essential selves.
Where is the image of God reflected in us? Our childhood influences and habits from
adolescence have clouded the mind, constricted the heart, and desensitized our
spiritual intuition. Our determination to have it our way, with our favorite
peeves and opinions, has brought disaster.
We can be afraid to face it all and admit, “I can’t
live this way anymore.” There is no app or recipe for us to wake up our sleepy
and distracted hearts, but it’s smart to reach out for support. We might say
the Road of the Cross is the way of external and internal spiritual sanitation
and hygiene. The dust clouds in our minds and the murky waters of our hearts need
to be gently cleaned up.
Here is a Zen poem that describes the process.
Like
the little stream//
Making
its way//
Through
the mossy crevices//
I,
too, //quietly//
Turn
clear// and transparent. —Ryoco
At first we can just sit down quietly for a
moment every day. We muster our strength. We resolve our excuses that
block us from making our way through the mossy crevices. The stream turns
clear, the mirror of the mind gets polished, and our life’s energy flows. This
too is grace.
A person on retreat here came to a nun and
said, “I cannot do this. My mind wanders a thousand times!” The nun said,
“Good.” She asked, “Why is that good?” The nun answered, “That means a thousand
times to return to God.” Like driving a vehicle and riding a bike and hiking,
we constantly return our eyes to the road. The Cross tells us it’s a matter of
life and death. This is the truth of our new Road. We may grit our teeth,
but then we become stronger.
An elder monk I spoke with remarked about
walking that long road, “Now I see the thread of my life and why certain things
happened; now I know some interior calm, and a certain unity of heart and mind.
The icon of the Cross urges us to make the
first move. When we take that hard and narrow road, it takes us, still carrying
our cross, to the Lord of life who awaits us with open arms.
