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Lenten Meditation: The Mass, The Way of the Cross by David Martin
THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST IS THAT we die to the world and join with Him on the cross. This teaching is beautifully expressed by St. Paul where he says, "I am nailed to the cross with Christ." (Galatians 2:19) To endure the suffering of the cross is necessary for salvation as taught by the Savior Himself: "Whosoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." (Matthew 14:27)Christ came to deliver us from the world and to call us home to His everlasting Kingdom, but this will be done strictly through the cross. He went before us to open the way, but unless we follow Him His sacrifice avails us nothing. The way to Heaven is to simply strip oneself of worldly interest and to press after Christ with our cross in keeping with the teaching of the holy evangelist: "I suffer the loss of all things, and count them as dung, that I may gain Christ." (Phil. 3:8)Moreover the apostle says, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim. 3:12) The faithful are called upon to join with Christ and to endure the rejection of the world, remembering the words of the Savior, "If the world hate you, know that it has hated Me before you." (John 15:18) To endure the cross of persecution is what glorifies God most and procures the greatest blessings. "Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven." (Matthew 5: 11,12) The world will reject this truth as it has for 2000 years, though this rejection has reached unparalleled heights at this last hour. Satan today is waging his final battle against the Church and what is his plan but to undermine the cross of Christ! And what is the cross, but the Sacrifice of Calvary planted in our midst - the Mass. Christ underwent His sacrifice on Good Friday, but at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday He
Hence, Christ through His institution has planted His death in our midst which is why the crucifix is above the main altar in the churches, because it reminds us of what we are attending. St. Paul says that each time the priest offers the bread and chalice he shows forth "The death of the Lord." (1 Cor. 11:26)Some might say: Why does Christ want to come and die among us? The answer is because He loves us and He wants us to die with Him. St. Paul says that in our baptism we are baptized into Christ's death. Through our baptism we take on the robes of the Passion and walk the path of mortification because we are members of His Body and are called to be one with Him. That is, we die with Him - we die to self and sin, we die to the elements of the world. Jesus foretold His Passion and death when He said, "The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified." He went on to say that those who follow Him into death will keep their life eternally. "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it remains alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world, keeps it unto eternal life." (John 12: 24,25)The Mass summons us to participate in Christ's sacrifice and to meditate on His death. Through the Mass Christ draws us into union with His own sufferings, that through these sufferings we might be purified of our defects and be united more closely with Him. The Mass then is Christ's way of sanctifying His people that they may learn to die to the world and walk with Him in the holy way of the cross. This will better help us to understand why the devil unleashes so much fury against the cross, because the cross is our salvation. Satan's work in these last times is to turn the world against the cross as evidenced by the secular reforms issuing forth from the Vatican II Council. What we have witnessed in the past forty years is a well planned conspiracy to undermine the Mass and discredit the Catholic religion so that people would leave the Church and not be associated any longer with Jesus Christ on the cross. It was certainly never deemed that Christ be re-crucified by His own, but the sacrilegious scenario of today can be turned on the devil's head and used to deepen our meditation on the Passion, thus advancing our union with Christ. For the lewdness and body exposure of today's women in the Church are the insulting scourges that violently beat and lacerate Our Lord's most pure body. The denials and false protestations coming forth today from the pulpit are the sharp thorns which today's modernists are driving into Our Lord's sacred head with the mallet of their intellectual pride. The excessive talking and celebration today in the Church is a replay of the jeering crowd dancing around the cross, as they too celebrated that the suffering Jesus was finally done away with. And as in Our Lord's time, so it is today that the scribes and high priests are the ones stirring up the people and leading this seditious revolt against the cross. The Mystical Body is truly passing through its Passion! But the followers of Christ needn't despair because Christ has given them the remedy to conquer this temptation, and that is the cross. The standard of the cross has been the victory of the saints and martyrs down through the ages of time. If there is one lesson we learn from The Passion it is that Jesus Christ can take a punch. When they stripped Him of His garments and cloaked Him with a dirty purple rag He didn't just drop dead with the first blow but endured many hours of abuse. So likewise, when modernists stripped Our Lord of His royal, liturgical garments He didn't just expire but has continued with us, fulfilling His promise that He would always remain with His Church "even to the consummation of the world." (Matthew 28:20)The faithful of the last times are called upon to join with Christ at the tabernacles of the world in imitation of Our Lady and St. John who remained at the foot of the cross amidst all the turmoil and sacrilege. For our calling is to walk "with Him and in Him" and to share in His cross in order that we may one day share in His resurrection. St. Paul says, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." (2 Tim. 2:12) Let us resolve in this Lenten season to do just that knowing that this royal way of the cross will lead us directly to the Kingdom of Heaven.David Martin is the moderator for St. Michael's worldwide radio program. He is the SMWA organizer for Los Angeles, Calif., where he resides. David, who is a former concert pianist, has been a devotee since 1979. |
