The Triumphant Cross, the Holy Name of Mary, and the Sorrows of Mary

The Catholics tend to associate the Cross with Lent. In fact, during Lenten season into the Holy Week, we journey with Jesus to the Calvary, where the Cross stood for Jesus to die. As Bishop Fulton J. Sheen said, unless there is a Good Friday in our life, there can be no Easter Sunday, there would not have been the Resurrection without the Cross. Because the Cross is indispensable to the Resurrection, it is not simply a symbol of the sorrowful death of Jesus but rather a powerful symbol of the victory of life in God over death.

According to Genesis, death entered into human life through the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. And, they were seduced into committing the Original Sin by Satan, who was in the form of serpent in the Garden of Eden. In other words, it was Satan in serpent, who brought death into human life by seducing Adam and Eve into committing the Original Sin. Therefore, death is an effect of Satan upon the humans through the Original Sin. However, the Cross, on which Jesus died, was necessary for Christ overcome death through the Resurrection, as prophetically hinted in Isaiah 52-53.Thus, the Cross is a triumphant symbol of life in the risen Christ over an effect of Satan, alluding to God’s victory over Satan in Revelation 20.

In Genesis 3, Satan, who infused death into humans, appeared as a serpent that tricked Adam and Eve into committing the Original Sin. In the first reading for the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Numbers 21:4-9, the Israelites on Exodus rebelled against God. Because of this sin of theirs, they died from snake bites. This can be compared to the fact that the rebellion of Adam and Eve against God by smitten by a snake let death entered into human life. Though a snake was a killer to those who sinned in this story, it was transformed into an object that brings healing, after God made Moses make bronze serpents sticking to a pole.

The transition of a snake from what killed into what healed the rebelled Israelites in Numbers 21:4-9 is reflected in the theme of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

As a snake was associated with death before God helped Moses made bronze snakes, making snakes a symbol of healing, the Cross before the death and the resurrection of Jesus symbolized the most shameful and humiliating execution. However, through the Son’s death and resurrection, the Father has turned the Cross into a powerful symbol of the victory of His power over Satan’s power. This victory, indeed, further leads to Christ’s ultimate victory over Satan in Revelation 20. Thus, the celebrating the victorious feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross not only remembers Christ’s victory over death but also his victory over Satan, who brought death to the humans through Adam and Eve.

Speaking of victory, it is also what connects the triumphant feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14 to the celebration of the Holy Name of Mary on September 12. Though, this Marian feast is to celebrate Mary as the Theotokos – the Mother of God, this feast also comes with a victorious impression, relating to European history.

In 1529, Vienna was conquered by the Ottoman Empire – the Siege of Vienna, as the Muslim Turks were advancing further into Western Europe. But, in 1868, John Sobieski, the King of Poland, entrusted the his army to the mantle of protection of Mary for the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Because the battle turned out to bring victory to the Holy League, including King Sobieski’s Polish-Lithuanian army, and redeeming Vienna back to the Christian control (the Holy Roman Empire) from the hands of the Muslim power of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, it has been believed that the Holy Name of Mary, the Mother of God, guided the Christian Holy League to its victory and redemption of Vienna.

Celebrating not only the triumphant power of Mary’s Holy Name but also the victorious power of the Holy Cross of the Christ make September a truly joyous month.

That being said, the Cross, though Jesus transformed its symbolic meaning from shame into victory, is a sure reminder of sorrow.

If you look at the Cross, its vertical line shoots up toward heaven. But, its other side is deeply grounded on earth. And, it is where we exist now and always struggling with multitudes of consequences of what Satan in serpent, had brought into our life, through Adam and Eve. One of the gravest consequences of the influence of Satan in us is the sin of killing Christ on the Cross. And, it is the greatest shameful act of sin that the humans have committed.

As this most shameful sin of the humans was killing Christ in agony on the Cross, Mary, the Mother of Christ, remained at the foot of the Cross, watching her son die. As Simeon predicted in Luke 2:35, while Jesus was still a baby, presented to the Lord as the first-born son in the Temple, according to the law in Exodus 13:2, 12, Mary’s heart was pierced by the sword of sorrow and grief. It was when Jesus was truly offered up to God, as the first-born to redeem us, in light of the Jewish law of offering sacrifice to reconcile with God. This is the significance of Good Friday, filled with sorry and grief. But, it was indispensable for the Resurrection to prove the victory of the Cross – to transform the Cross from a symbol of shame and death into the symbol of the victory of God’s power over Satan’s power – setting the pretext to God’s ultimate victory over Satan, through Christ victory over Dragon, great serpent, in Revelation 20. Therefore, the period between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is the period to prepare to move upward on the vertical line of the Cross: from the sorry on earth, as Mary experienced at the foot of the Cross, to the new eschatological hope rising with the Resurrection of Christ.

On the following day, September 15, the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, is commemorated, in sequence to celebrating the victory of the Holy Cross, to remind us that there were deep unfathomable sorrows of Mary, the Mother of God, at the foot of the triumphant Cross.

Just as with any war, there are so many brave lives sacrificed, even the war ended with victory.

Ever since Satan in snake in Genesis 3 brought death in human life through the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, we have been in constant battle with Satan and his collaborators. Satan’s mission is to corrupt us morally and spiritually into demise, by cutting us off from God.

The victory of the Holy Cross and the sorrows of Mary give us one great momentum to inspire us to continue our fight against Satan – until Christ returns to ultimately conquer Satan, as prophetically envisioned in Revelation 20. 

Meaning of Personal Cross

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me”(Matthew 16:24).

Jesus said that we must first deny ourselves and then, take up our cross and follow him, carrying our cross.  This is a part of the Gospel reading for the 22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) – Matthew 16:21-27.

Jesus commanded the disciples to practice self-denial and carry their own cross to follow him, after scolding Peter for trying to stop him from heading to Jerusalem. This episode took place between Peter’s confession of Jesus’ Messianic nature and the Transfiguration.

So, what does this command of Jesus mean?

It seems that self-denial is a necessary condition to carrying our personal cross, in order to follow Jesus. This appears to say that our psychological clinging to ourselves makes it difficult to take up and carry our cross. In other words, it is our ego that can become a impeding factor in taking up and carrying our cross, as Jesus has commanded.

I do not think that anyone would interpret this literally and go to a lumber shop, making a wooden cross to carry, upon reading these words Jesus.

Though this passage evokes an image of Jesus carrying his heavy cross on his way to Golgotha, as in the Stations of the Cross, Jesus was using the word, “cross”, symbolically. With this understanding, we must ask ourselves, what the cross means to us and what is the cross we carry.

In the Bible study group I teach, I asked participants this twin question.

Suffering, sacrifice, victory…

These are some of the answers that came up. All of these make sense.

In regard to suffering and sacrifice, I had to add a bit of note to distinguish salvific suffering from non-salvific suffering and salvific sacrifice from non-salvific sacrifice, to make sure that Jesus’ teaching on self-denial and the cross is not about masochism.  Masochistic suffering and sacrifice simply are destructive and produce nothing meaningful.  These are what Devil tries to drive us into.

Unfortunately, some religious people, especially those with rigid cognitive schemata and those with certain psychopathologies, such as insecurity and narcissism, tend to go through masochistic suffering and sacrifice. In some cases, they practice sadistic suffering and sacrifices, especially when narcissism is evident.  These pathological misunderstanding of self-denial and the cross are often observed in monastic and ascetic religious practice – though not all monasticism and asceticism are pathological.

Just as we must be very careful which spirit we follow, we must exercise full caution as to our understanding of self-denial and the cross, in regard to suffering and sacrifice.

With this caution, I shared an image of the cross as a mother carrying out her pregnancy and delivering her child, enduring sufferings and sacrifices. Having witnessed tragedies during pregnancy and child birth as a hospital chaplain intern, I am convinced that pregnancy and childbirth are fit to an image of the cross that Jesus encourages us to carry.

Though today’s advanced OB/GYN (obstetrics/gynecology)  level of care has reduced many pregnancy-and-childbirth-related deaths, pregnancy and childbirth still come with a certain degree of risk of death – not only for children in their mothers’ wombs but also mothers themselves.

We may wonder why women have been choosing to become pregnant and give birth to their children   - even though pregnancy and childbirth demands a lot of self-sacrifices and come with a risk of death for generations?

To continue human species, as it is an instinct. 

This can be a good answer – if the above question is asked in a biology class. But, I am not teaching biology here.

Psychologically, philosophically, and theologically, it is out of love – self-sacrificing love, namely, agape.  For the sake of a tiny life growing inside of her womb, a psychologically and spiritually healthy woman is willing to sacrifice herself and endure sufferings, because she knows there is joy and meaning in her suffering and sacrifice – even though a risk associated with pregnancy and childbirth could mean her death and/or her child’s death.

A woman, whom I had the privilege of ministering and counseling, told me, “Now, I think I can accept this sad and painful loss as my cross”, after some meaningful pastoral counseling and reflection upon her miscarriage. As she was Catholic, we prayed the Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, following this conversation. Then, she reflected her cross upon the cross that Mary had to carry for being perfectly obedient to God’s will. After the Rosary, she told me with some smile, “After all, if Mary did not go through all that suffering she had to bear for her son’s suffering and death, we would not have Easter to celebrate, right?” She also said that she offered the baby she carried in her womb to the Lord, as well as all the sufferings and self-sacrifices she made during her pregnancy.  I witnessed that the weight of her grief was lightened as she found the meaning of the cross she has been carrying – as she recognize the weight of her cross, though pastoral reflection and counseling.

She also said she still wants to become pregnant again, though she sure does not miss all that throwing up and other sufferings associated with pregnancies. It is because she wants to be a mother. So, she asked me to join her in praying that the Lord will let her share the next new life in her womb more.

Now, God has blessed her and her husband two healthy children. She shares her joy, as well as suffering and sacrifices, of motherhood, with the Lord, as she is grateful.

So, this is one way to understand the cross.

A cross can also symbolize a junction of the divinity and the humanity, where the Holy Spirit meets the human flesh.  It symbolizes where God and the humans meet.

A perfect crossing of the divinity and the humanity began with Mary’s pregnancy and completed with the Cross that Jesus carried and died on.  All of these are in God’s salvific plan.

In discerning meaning of our personal cross to take up and carry it, we can certainly reflect the cross Mary carried with her absolute obedience to God. As Mary’s cross – her suffering and sacrifices – was God’s major salvific plan, bringing the Messiah in the human flesh to this world and let him complete his mission with his Cross in Calvary, this reflection helps us make our personal cross also bear some salvific meaning. For this, we can also think of suffering and sacrifices that women endure during pregnancy and childbirth.

As Mary is symbolically projected in the woman, who cried out in pain and gave birth to a male child, facing further challenges, in Revelation 12, we can connect our own cross to Mary’s cross through this woman’s suffering and sacrifice. After all, Revelation 12 also symbolically indicates that we are the rest of her offspring that Satan declared war against. And, Christ, her first-born son in Revelation 12, is our elder brother. It is him, this elder brother, who now invites us to deny ourselves, take up our personal cross and carry it in order to follow him.

We know Christ’s victory not only over death with the Resurrection but also over Satan from Revelation 19-20. This means that carrying our cross and following him, upon our self-denial will lead us to a victory over Satan.  Realizing this makes our suffering and sacrifice well worth to endure. In other words, denying ourselves, taking up our cross and carrying it is well worth, because it leads us to the ultimate victory, ushering us into the Kingdom of Heaven.

The woman, whom I was given an opportunity to provide pastoral care and counseling, after her miscarriage, regained her hope for a child, because she recognized that her suffering and sacrifices with that pregnancy led to the miscarriage is her cross toward a victory with a child to raise.

After all, a cross is not just a cross. There is so much to a cross.