"IN THE BEAUTY OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED WE SEE OUR OWN SIN"
“When I direct myself toward the crucified Christ, every smudge on the window pane of my soul becomes visible:
– the self-preoccupation that makes ecstasy impossible,
– the pathetic sadness at the success of a friend,
– the resentment that rots us like a poison,
– the laziness of spirit that undercuts the mission,
– the hunger for everything but the Bread of Life,
– the addictions that draw me myself,
– the passion that makes of other selves playthings for my ego.”
Bishop Robert Barron, The Strangest Way, Walking the Christian Path, Word on Fire Press, 2021.
What we have discussed thus far, the training, insights and disciplines of our life apprenticeship, has just been readying ourselves for our journey up and down the Christian path, wherever it may go, whatever we may find along the way.
We seek for it to be a pilgrimage through life looking to the Holy Spirit as she helps us keep our eyes on Jesus. We inwardly hope for mostly joyous times (for Sermon on the Mount and Wedding Feast at Cana moments) and tend to avoid or run from the hard times (encounter with Pharisees moments, trial before Pilate moments and events that lead to Crucifixions), but, as Bishop Barron states, the Christian Path, that Strange Christan Way, will have both, and we need to learn to see the crucifixions, our own and those of others, are the “way of the cross” that will lead us to personal and societal resurrections – but only if we choose to walk these paths of crucifixion with Jesus.
That path starts with converting the way we see things, events and people, even ourselves. Jesus on the cross is a picture of a joyous and happy man because he wasn’t preoccupied with what was happening to him. All that mattered to him – and all that should matter to us – is what, as a result of that, would be available for all the people God loves, and that is everyone.
Ponder: What does Jesus’ suffering and his death on the Cross do for us, make available for us?
So, this Strange Way, this Christian path, is leading me (and you) to the sublime truth that our lives are not about us. They are meant by God to be about the Trinitarian love that has been flowing within us since the first moments of our lives, meant, not to remain dormant, but to be awakened time and time again by us letting God’s Spirit lead the way.
Ponder this last paragraph. Does God have the ability to make our lives about Trinitarian love? Would God do this? If you believe it, is it working? And, if not, what may be preventing it?
I consider it a blessing to have lived many years in the God-centered environments of several convents. They definitely were places dedicated to God and the service of God’s people, but we were and are frail human women living there. So, those convents were as God-centered (or otherwise) as we who lived there made them. I expect that this is true of each of your homes and the places you frequent. As Jesus did in the broken society of his time, emptying himself so that we could be healed and resurrected to new life, we too must heal the tragic misfunctioning a we see on and around the Christian Path we trod today. Can you and I see these as crucifixions — as crucifixions calling for self-emptying so that God’s grace and love can take possession of us and flow from us, making every place a God-centered home for all.
Yes, these Paths of the Christian Life are strange, but worth taking.
Sister Loretta
Reflection
Ponder the above and this brief summary of Bishop Barron’s 2021 book, The Strangest Way, where he defines three consecutive paths to be followed by anyone seeking a deeper participation in this inner wellspring of one’s own being:
PATH 1. Apprenticeship. Responding to Jesus’ call, “Come and you will see.” (John 1:39) We walk like Chaucer’s pilgrims to holy places – on the journey into what seems at first to be a strange new world. But, once we enter, it feels like home. We learn and we find that things look different now, be they riches or poverty, health or disease, fame or disgrace, life or death.
PATH 2. Self emptying. “All have sinned.” Romans 3:23. So, we seek and find the light of redemption, even in all the dark places, “walking like Dante up an exhilarating Purgatorio, confessing like Augustine both the stupidity of our sin and the graciousness of our Savior.”
PATH 3. Living for the Other. Finally, realizing that my life is not about me, we surrender to the life for others drawn into it in every step of our way by the Lord who has already modeled this for us. In Bishop Barron’s words, “It is about my attentiveness to the slightest sign or movement of Grace, to the way God is clearing, and to have the courage to set out on it.”
Resources:
Book: The Strangest Way, Walking the Christian Path, Bishop Robert Barron, Word on Fire Press, 2021
Podcast: Ep. 12 | The Strangest Way – Bishop Barron on Conversion, Evangelization & Culture Podcast, Word on Fire Institute, 2023.