Meet you at the cross.
One of the most moving elements of this, the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, is the Veneration of the Cross: a solemn procession when each of us approaches the cross to touch it, to embrace it, to kiss it – or, perhaps, to be touched by it, to be embraced by it, to be kissed by it.
We carry our prayers to the cross. Some of us bring grief at the death of a spouse or parent or child, an unsettling illness, a marriage or a family come undone. We take it all to the cross: our fears and anxiety, our brokenness and insecurities, our anger and resentments, our loneliness, our isolation, our sadness, our disease. We take it to the cross because we’re weary: it’s impossible to bear by ourselves. We take it to the cross so that our pain can meet God’s compassion, so that our heartache can be redeemed for hope.
We can’t make the solemn procession here today. But I invite you to find a cross in your home. Hold on to that cross as if your life depends on it – because, of course, it does. Take it all to the cross. In your contemplation, realize that you are not alone. While there is much that holds us together, the tie that binds us today is our suffering, the stuff that brings us to the cross. Though we can’t be together to comfort and care for one another, we meet at the cross, fellow sufferers, no matter where we are.
Meet you at the cross.