The Cross Is Now HopeReflections on John 20 — The Resurrection
What are the symbols of death, and what are the symbols of life?
We watch the sun rise and see the glorious beginning of a new day. We watch it set and see beauty in its passing. We watch the leaves turn brilliant colors before falling to the ground, and even in their dying, we see something beautiful. We know that spring will come again.
But when we see a coffin, our hearts grow heavy. When we see an empty hospital bed, we think of sickness, suffering, and death. No one wears a coffin around his neck as jewelry. No one hangs a guillotine or an electric chair above the doorway of his home.Yet Christians throughout the world wear a Cross around their necks, hang crosses in their homes, and place them above their altars.
How extraordinary that the greatest symbol of Christian hope was once among the most terrifying instruments of death ever invented.The Romans used crucifixion to inflict suffering, humiliation, and terror. Those condemned could spend days hanging in agony, exposed to the elements, waiting for death. The Cross represented pain, helplessness, and the finality of earthly life.And then came Jesus.
On Good Friday, His disciples watched Him die. Their hopes seemed buried with Him. But on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb and encountered the risen Lord. Everything changed.
Through His Passion and death, Christ offered Himself freely to the Father for our salvation. Through His Resurrection, He conquered death and opened to us the promise of eternal life. His Cross was not made meaningful only after Easter; it was already the supreme act of divine love. But the Resurrection revealed the victory accomplished through that love.
The Cross, once an instrument of death, had become the sign of our redemption and hope.
For centuries, mankind had struggled to understand what awaited us beyond the grave. Different civilizations offered different visions of the afterlife. Even among the Jews of Jesus’ time, the Sadducees rejected the resurrection of the dead, while the Pharisees affirmed it. The hope of resurrection was already present in God’s revelation to Israel, but in Christ that promise reached its fulfillment.Jesus did not merely offer another explanation of life after death. He declared, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). He promised that in His Father’s house there were many dwelling places (John 14:2).
Through Christ, we are offered something greater than the continuation of earthly existence: eternal communion with the Holy Trinity and, at the final resurrection, the glorification of our bodies. The Tree of Life, from which fallen humanity had been barred in Eden, finds its fulfillment in the eternal life Christ makes possible.
The Cross had become Hope.But brothers, if we stop here, we have missed the challenge Christ places before us.Jesus did not simply ask us to admire His Cross. He commanded us to take up our own.”If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
We all carry crosses. Some are obvious: sickness, financial hardship, broken relationships, the loss of loved ones. Others are hidden: fear, loneliness, disappointment, resentment, or the daily struggle against temptation.
Our natural instinct is to escape them. We pray that God will remove our suffering and make life easier. There is nothing wrong with those prayers. Even Jesus prayed in Gethsemane that the cup might pass from Him. Yet He surrendered Himself completely to the Father’s will.What if we began to see our crosses differently?
What if the suffering we endure could become an opportunity to draw closer to Christ? What if the person who has hurt us became an opportunity to forgive? What if our disappointments became opportunities for humility, our fears opportunities for faith, and our sacrifices opportunities for love?What if, instead of asking only, “Lord, why have You allowed this?” we began asking, “Lord, how can I love You through this?”
The Church teaches that Christ’s sacrifice is perfect and sufficient. Nothing we suffer can add to the redemption He has accomplished. Yet through Baptism, we are united to Christ, and He invites us to participate in His self-offering. When we freely unite our suffering and sacrifices to His, they can become occasions of grace, deepening our charity and drawing us toward holiness.This is the mystery Saint Paul expresses when he speaks of rejoicing in his sufferings for the sake of Christ’s Body, the Church (Colossians 1:24). Not because suffering is good in itself, but because love can transform how we bear it and what we offer through it.
And we need not wait for great suffering to find us. Every day offers opportunities to take up our crosses willingly: choosing patience instead of anger, forgiveness instead of resentment, generosity instead of selfishness, and service instead of comfort. These are small sacrifices, but they become acts of love when offered to God.
The Resurrection should change not simply what we believe about death, but how we live today.
So, I offer each of us a challenge this week.Identify one cross you are carrying. Something that troubles you, frustrates you, or weighs heavily upon your heart. Bring it consciously to Christ in prayer. Ask Him not only to help you endure it, but to show you how to unite it to His sacrifice.
Then act. Forgive someone. Visit someone who is suffering. Make a sacrifice without recognition. Go to Confession. Spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. At Mass, consciously unite your prayers and sacrifices to Christ’s one perfect offering, made sacramentally present in the Eucharist.
We do not carry our crosses alone. The risen Christ strengthens us through His grace, His Church, and especially the sacraments. We may not choose the crosses that come into our lives, but with God’s grace, we can choose how we respond to them. Nor are we called to remain in preventable harm or injustice; sometimes taking up our cross means having the courage to seek help or protect another.
The Cross of Jesus is the sign of our redemption and the promise of eternal life. And through our union with Him, the crosses we carry can become signs of that same hope.
So the next time you look at the Cross around your neck, ask yourself:If the Cross I wear is a symbol of hope, what am I doing today to make the cross I carry a symbol of that same hope?
The Cross is now Hope.
Let us begin living as though we believe it.
