My dear parishioners,
Peace! The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights the “prayer of the rosary” as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours in the Western Church (§ 2678). In praying the rosary we “meditate on the mysteries of Christ” engaging our “thought, imagination, emotion, and desire” leading not only to “knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus” but “union with Him” (§ 2708). In fact the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an “epitome of the whole Gospel” and is also an expression of “devotion to the Virgin Mary” (§ 971). Here we consider the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery, the Carrying of the Cross.
In Sacred Tradition we see the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, the Carrying of the Cross treated through eight of the fourteen Stations of the Cross. Saint Josemaria Escriva (+1975) addresses the Lord carrying the Cross in both Holy Rosary and The Way of the Cross. If we carry the Cross in our lives with God’s grace to strengthen us it will be a Holy Cross. If we carry the Cross squarely on our shoulders it will be borne with generous love not resignation. When we bear the Cross in our lives we cooperate in the redemption of the world, ourselves included.
In Sacred Scripture we read about the Lord Jesus carrying His Cross in John 19:17. Simon of Cyrene helping Jesus to carry the Cross is recorded in Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; and Luke 23:26. The Lord Jesus commands each of us to take up our cross daily and to follow Him (cf. Matthew 16:24; Luke 9:23). The patience of the Lord with us is evident throughout Sacred Scripture: “The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness” (Numbers 14:18); “The Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindest and truth” (Exodus 34:6); “You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness” (Nehemiah 9:17). We are also reminded of the “patience of God” in 1 Peter 3:20 and Acts 13:18 where we read about the Lord putting up with His people for some forty years in the wilderness.
The fruit of the mystery of the Lord Jesus carrying His Cross is patience. The Lord Jesus could have saved us with a single cry on a cold Bethlehem night or the first shedding of His blood in His circumcision… but He chose to become like us in all things but sin to save us from ourselves, to reveal the Father to us and us to ourselves (cf. Hebrews 4:15; Gaudium et spes, 22). The Lord Jesus did not only take one step to Calvary. He did not carry His Cross halfheartedly. He went the distance. He embraced the wood upon which He died. Inspired by His long suffering, we ask His grace and help to bear the crosses in our lives and pledge ourselves to help others to bear their crosses.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr