Take up your cross

This is a post I prepared a while ago, but never got around to posting.  I don’t have any pictures yet, but I’ll add them in a later post.

 

This morning, I found myself waking up to my alarm at 4:00 am.  I wondered to myself why I was getting up at such an early hour.  I thought of the three of us who chose not to sleep all night, but rather stay awake praying in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

I guess I shouldn’t complain so much.  I was, after all, going to carry my cross with Christ

At 4:30, we planned to take off from the Notre Dame center to walk the Via Dolorosa, or way of the Cross – the very path which Jesus walked.  However, our plans were diverted because of a torrential thunderstorm, which had lasted through the night and flooded parts of the Old City.  It was decided that a more prayerful experience of the stations could be had in the chapel of the place we are staying.

Afterwards, we all went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to celebrate Mass on Calvary, the very place where Jesus died.  And, as Father Baima reminded us in his homily, we remembered not only that Jesus died here, but that when the women came, they were told that he was not here – and this dynamic is what gives Christian life its meaning.

Like the women at the tomb, I think I learned the most important lesson shortly before dawn.