Catechesis on the Cross

Good evening, children! Today, seeing you gathered before the Divine Majesty of Our Lord, I want to congratulate you, I want to thank you for what you are, for what you do, and for what you desire to be.

Esdras said at the beginning: today is a beautiful day like every day, today is a radiant day like every day, today is a day of light like every day, today love exists as it does every day. And it is that each day, my lovely ones, the human being must look upon the new dawn, the new aurora, the true light, the new sun, so as thus to advance along the day. Likewise, I was listening to the song — and we are going to sing it again, because it is a song that, it seems, every time I have the opportunity or the permission to be with you, the chosen songs fit like a ring on a finger. Perhaps you do not see it, but I do. We are going to sing it; we are going to see if you are really here. We are going to look within each one at the truth that struggles in the heart and the truth that struggles in the madwoman of the house. We are going to look, we are going to search, because each one of you will do so in that interior, in that nest of love, to see whether you have truly been here beside the Lord, or have been here only in body but never in spirit, repeating like parrots. But it is beautiful — that is why I congratulated you — because you are here. Because the Lord sees the decision to follow Him, the decision to be beside Him, the decision to unite with Him, the decision to love Him, the decision to walk on, even with all the difficulties. But today I know, Lord, that it is a day when You will be there in that Eucharistic presence — I cannot miss it; and this, this has an immense value in the eyes of the Lord, in the eyes of Love, in the eyes of Truth, in the eyes of Light. Oh, lovely ones, and today you are here. Only in that august silence of your interior can you thus immerse yourselves and find Him, and at the same time endure in that waiting, in that impatience which slowly becomes patient, because beside Him everything is possible; there is no pain, there is no suffering, there are no worries, there are no distances; only peace and love. Let us sing, children! Tonight I am going to speak to you a little about the Cross. Let us sing to the Lord. Close your eyes. Try to let your trays hold the Eucharist, the Eucharistic Presence, fixed in your interiority of thought, of imagination, of memory, and let your will pour itself toward it. Because it is the moment to say: here I am, Lord Jesus. It is the moment to praise Him, the moment of the encounter, the moment to dispose oneself and set aside the darkness, and to give oneself a minute, a second, an eternity in that time of joy, of gladness, of consolation, of strength.

Let us sing, children!

How beautiful, Lord! In that immensity of Love which You are, these sheep, these servants, these slaves of Your love want simply to be cleansed, to shelter in You, to be filled with strength to walk, to be made clean, so that the power of Your Holy Love may restore them, within each one of them; and now, with Your hands free of the Cross, lower them and anoint the heads of these Your children, and fill them, and they shall be clean, they shall be healed — because You gave Your Blood for the pardon of each one of their faults, because through the Wood You redeemed the sins of the world. Oh! Dove of Love, who with the beating of your wings pour out the graces of the Heart of Our Lord. Graces of light, of love, of peace, of forgiveness, of quiet, of calm. How beautiful, Lord! How beautiful!

Humanity since antiquity has had — or in antiquity they had — a horror of the Cross; because the Cross, children, was only for men who committed crimes: they were crucified, exposed before the whole world so that no one would commit that sin again. The men who died on the Cross died asphyxiated — yes, children. The weight of the body, the swelling, the flies and all the horrors they were subjected to made of those men true human refuse. So then, what better death for the One who called Himself the Son of God — praised be the Lord! What better death than to die on the Cross, to die crucified! This would be the mockery; this would make humanity never commit the same error again — or make sure no one would ever again dare to say he was the Son of God.

The Cross, children, is composed of two beams, one vertical and one horizontal. The vertical beam comes from heaven to earth, as the Word rightly said. And the horizontal beam is set between this heaven of love and this earth, so that humanity may take hold and ascend, and attain eternal life. But everyone speaks of the Cross. In it you can see four triangles; each of them represents a side of the Throne of the Lord Jesus — who was crucified, and was nailed by His hands and His feet, but was also bound at His wrists to the horizontal beam of the Cross, so that the weight would not tear His hands open and He would fall. That is why, children, that rope which bound the wrists of Jesus to the Cross is still present today, so that every man may take hold of it and be lifted up to eternal life.

Thus, children, between the Cross and man there exists the great force of cohesion. This force is the one nobody wants, but it is the only one that can, even so, sustain you. This force is the force of pain, the force of suffering, of anguish, of desperation; it is the force of death. For the Cross alone cannot exist unless it has held this force. That is why the Cross does not carry the man first: the man carries the Cross, so that afterwards it may carry him to salvation. But you do not want the Cross. So, there is a very old saying out there: «Everyone wants the Christ of the Cross, but nobody wants the Cross of Christ.» Heaven help us! Is it not true, children?

Well, children, give thanks to God that each one has a Cross, that each one of you has pains, has anguish, has sufferings, has solitudes — because when all that ends, it is because you are already hanging on the Cross. And if you have not suffered in carrying the Cross, what can be hoped for, if suffering and pain are the passport to eternal life? He who suffers, he who weeps, he who bears pain, who bears anguish, who bears desperation, cannot curse his Cross; because he who renounces his Cross does not endure carrying it and abandons the Cross — and he will be abandoned. As simple as that; even so, just that easy.

Muchos hombres hoy día no soportan a su prójimo, al que tienen a su lado, al que les cae mal, o al que está feo, o al que está gordo; en fin, hijos, a sus hermanos, y al hacer esto se van deshaciendo de esa persona, y las van apartando. O el que tiene que cuidar un enfermo: esa Cruz, no la quiero yo, mejor que se vaya. O el que tiene que visitar al presidiario: esa Cruz no la quiero yo, que viva en su soledad por pecador. O al que tiene hambre: no quiero alimentar, mucho gasto, que se muera de hambre, yo trabajo para comer.

Beware! Beware of your crosses, children! Because they can turn out to be crosses not of salvation but of death. For there are two crosses, children: the Cross of the wood of Jesus — which I could call the first Chalice of Love, because there His Blood was poured out for the salvation of the world, and on that wood His body hung for the salvation of the world — and the other cross, the cross of pain, the cross of suffering. Perhaps many may say: nothing happens to that one, he lives at ease. Careful, children! There are many who appear to live at ease and carry their calvary, carry their cross. Every human being must look at his own Cross. My half friar used to say: «you wish to attain Glory, embrace your Cross». This means that man cannot separate himself from his neighbor; it means that man must live joined to that pain in that neighbor, with that neighbor and for that neighbor. It does not matter if I dislike him, if he talks about me, if he is a gossip, whatever it may be — that is my Cross, and I am going to show that I can carry it; because if I do not, I am separating myself from You, Lord, and you will be among those who cry: Lord, Lord! What is your Cross? Because every pain and every suffering comes from a neighbor, or through a neighbor, or toward a neighbor.

There is another kind of crosses: those crosses that do not allow pain and suffering to be seen. «Whoever wishes to follow me, let him take up his Cross.» True, children? Then union is the truth of love in every group, in every family. It is important, my lovely ones, that you notice a few little things. Once, children, Jesus was going along the way with the apostles. Up ahead they came upon three carts loaded with provisions and, likewise, with gold coins. All three had gotten stuck, each beside the other. Their drivers struggled to save their carts. One of the apostles says: Lord, which one do we help? And Jesus answered: Let us go near, let us listen, and let us see what they do. The driver of the first cart, children, was praying, seated on a rock, with the cart in the mud — he prayed most beautifully. Let us look at what the second one does: this one only grumbled and worked, pushing. And the third one pushed — that is, he worked and prayed. And Jesus said: Let us help this one; and they saved the cart. What do I mean to tell you? That man must work for his salvation; man must, even so, fight — and his weapon is prayer. It is not coming here on a Priestly Thursday; it is being a person of prayer. And every struggle, every effort, every pain, every labor, every anguish will be rewarded with the strength of love, with the help of the Lord, through work and through prayer. Augustine said: «Lord, give me whatever You will, but give me the strength to endure».

My lovely ones, the Cross is in each one of you, and you bear it, you are carrying it. Jesus had the great help of that man with the Cross — that is, one who helped Him carry His Cross — but it was a forced help. When you go to help a neighbor, do it with a disposition of love, not because «it fell to me, they threw it on me» — and what am I to do? No, no, no, I do not want it. Golden rule, children: do not do to another what you do not wish done to you — this is the Law and the Prophets. Ah no, this prisoner — now they have thrown him on me, I have to go visit him every day! No, I do not want this. And so on: ah no, I am leaving this group because they spoke ill of me! Heaven help us! Then it is no longer a group; because from the moment you do not attend the community, the call of the community, you are no longer a group — because what mattered more to you was not the sick one, not the prisoner, not what was said, but your own selfishness, your pride, your arrogance.

Whoever wishes to follow me, says the Lord, let him deny himself! And what is that? What is denying oneself but forgetting, removing, ridding oneself of selfishness, of envy, of anger, of hypocrisy? It does not matter, I cannot be selfish — I am needed. And that neighbor, or that group of love that needs you today, the Lord is watching it, as when He walked with the apostles. Let us watch; let us notice what each one does. Depart from me, agents of iniquity! Because you did not build on solid rock. What good was it to beat your breast?

The Cross is always accompanied by pain, by suffering, by anguish, by desperation. Never by anger, never by pride. Why? Because then what happened with the thief happens — one good, the other bad. The one who cursed Jesus was not adhered; his adhesion to the cross was anger, was rage — and simply why? Because they were not doing what he wanted. He was guilty, but he did not accept it. Jesus was innocent and was held guilty. And that is salvation: acceptance.

My lovely ones, that song with which you began — «here I am, Lord Jesus» — through His wounds, through His pain man is made clean; but that same pain is reflected in every human being, and one must act according to what one believes. Even so, the force of love that unites you to Jesus unites you to your neighbor. Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Who is humanity to accuse, to point, to attack, to gossip, to make itself a triple tongue? Is this walking with Jesus? Is this carrying the Cross? How beautiful it would be if, even with the anger, even with the rage, even with the egos in revolt, one could say: before You, Lord, and before this neighbor I am going to change, and I am going to look at him as a child of Yours, as my brother — that is carrying the Cross. That is why today I want to exhort you, children, to remember something very important: to walk with Jesus is not to say that one works for Jesus or for the neighbor; it is to be truly a soldier of love, it is to give oneself, to hand oneself over — and never to forget to work and to pray.

May God keep you, children. And may the Cross that each one of you carries every day — every day, children — become lighter, because you have learned to bear it, though it wound you, though you fall to the ground, though it crucify you. It, children, will carry you to Glory, to heaven. There is no Glory without the Cross. Do not forget this; do not forget it.

O Blessed Cross, O Cross of Love! O Cross that bore the Body of my Lord! May each one of you be able to say the same of his own Cross. Shalom.