As we begin Lent, we turn our eyes to the Cross. Many parishes will offer Stations of the Cross each Friday, and we take up penances during this season in order to unite our sufferings to the suffering of Christ on the Cross.

But the Cross is not just about suffering. Recently on Father Simon Says™, Father Richard Simon offered a reflection on what it mean to ‘take up your cross.’. He said:  

“The Cross isn’t just about suffering, it’s about powerlessness. The all-powerful God became powerless for love of us. He denied His own infinite power and became a man like us in all things but sin, and was obedient even to death on the Cross.

That’s the thing about the Cross, you’re powerless. And usually it’s illness that makes you powerless. When we’re strapped down in a hospital bed with tubes coming out, you can’t move a lot. But we’re powerless also when we sit by the sickbed of someone we love – be it a child or a parent. We’re powerless in so many ways.

This is the Cross, to say ‘Lord, into Your hands I commend my spirit.’ And I’m so far from it, I don’t know if you are, but I struggle with thinking there must be something I can do. And I’m not urging absolute passivity, but rather than wonderful prayer, the Serenity Prayer that says, ‘Lord, help me to know what I can change, what I can’t change, and the wisdom to know the difference.’

There are just things in life over which I am powerless, and when I encounter those things it is the Lord inviting me to trust Him. The Cross is about powerlessness.”

Listen to the full reflection below:

Father Simon Says™ airs weekdays at 2:00 p.m. Eastern/11:00 a.m. Pacific on Relevant Radio®.