My Little Way

“I made up my mind, there and then, to stay in spirit at the foot of the Cross, to gather up the dew of heavenly life and give it to others.”- St. Therese of Lisieux

Jesus is called many things in the Bible; Lord, God Savior, Messiah, King, Priest, Prophet, and Lamb. Lamb? Lambs were considered to be small, lowly animals that symbolized innocence, gentleness, and purity. Today is Good Friday, and it’s currently 2:00; the time when he was being crucified. When we call Jesus the Lamb, it may make him almost sound kind of weak. In the Old Testament, the people would often sacrifice a lamb in order to atone for their sins. However, it wasn’t until Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb, that all of our sins would be able to be forgiven.

God came down to us in human form through Jesus Christ. He was a lowly carpenter who then died the most cruel death known to man. Sometimes I feel like I am on that walk with Jesus to calvary. All of my struggles, failures, weaknesses, and pain all on my back in the form of a cross. I want to walk with Jesus and share in his pain because it is in his pain that we are strengthened. I want to bring my pain and all of my struggles with my health and in my life and leave them at the foot of the cross .

St. Therese is a model of a person who loved suffering. That may sound kind of weird, but she used suffering to help connect herself with Christ. I loved that quote that is written earlier in this post about how she will stand in spirit at the foot of the cross, and she will take in all of those graces and love that is poured out from Jesus and spread it to others. As Catholics, we need to bring ourselves to the foot of the cross, so we can bask in that heavenly life so we can bring that life to others when we evangelize like the disciples did after Jesus’ death.

I saw this as if we bring our struggles, failures, sins, and hardships in our lives, the things that make us “dead,” and bring them to the foot of the cross, that “dew of heavenly life” that pours out will bring us back to life. On this Good Friday, we need to bring ourselves to the foot of the cross and experience that suffering that Jesus endured. For it is by this sacrifice of the Lamb, the simple and lowly lamb, that we are redeemed and can be brought back to life. The sacrifice of the Lamb is the final and ultimate sacrifice that is needed to save us from our sins and to make us have eternal life. When we walk with Jesus with our own crosses, that suffering will make us stronger.

When people say that even if I was the only person on Earth, Jesus would still go through all that suffering and die just for me. It makes me feel so small, yet it also makes me feel so big. There are 7 billion people in the world, yet Jesus would die for ME? Sometimes I can’t fathom that, because I am just 1 in 7 billion. Jesus died for the people that were in the past, the people in the present today, and all of those people who will come after us. Wow, just wow. That’s how powerful that sacrifice is. So today (any everyday), try standing at the foot of the cross. It’s in his death that you will feel alive.