By José Pablo Poblete, LC
When two people are in love, they begin to imitate each other in gestures, in ways of thinking, and in the way they look at life. This way of acting arises naturally as a result of being spectators of life from the same seat and sharing the same experiences. It is a beautiful reality that awakens those silly smiles when they realize that they thought the same as the other, or that they responded with the same words when someone asked them something.
In this wake, Christocentrism seeks to also shape our lives, perhaps on a slightly higher plane, but not exempt from all natural and human things. The heart of Christ molds our hearts so that we see things as He sees them, and one of the ways He uses is through the cross.
That is why the Constitutions of the Legionaries of Christ, in number 8, invites the legionaries to
Seek to know Him, love Him, and experience Him intimately, especially in the Gospel, the Eucharist, and the cross; and strive to imitate Him especially in the giving of oneself to others.
When feeling the cross, sometimes the question arises, how did you see the cross, Lord? Because quite often we internally say, “Oh, you weigh me down!” when the shadow appears at the door of our own life.
The cross by itself is nothing more than a piece of pain and burden. Embracing it empty has more of a masochistic flavor than virtue. In fact, if it weren’t for Christ dying on it, probably the cross would only remain in memory as one more of the hundreds of torture methods used throughout history.
However, with Christ nailed to it, the story is different. Every pain, every ingratitude, every weakness, every anguish that tears our soul is an opportunity to discover what the heart of Jesus experienced. Blessed contradiction. Because the less we want it, the more we take advantage of it when it is present. Because even without seeking it, we then do not want to let go of it when we understand its value.
Oh, you weigh me down, cross! And Christ walks beside me, also carrying it. It’s true, yes, it weighs. But it is also true, and more profound, that I carry it with Christ, and thus He shapes my priestly heart.
