As we prepare to enter Holy Week, we turn our eyes to the Cross. In a time when so many are suffering, the image of the Cross reminds us that Jesus knows our suffering, and He willingly took on suffering for our sake.

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

“The Cross isn’t just about suffering, it’s about powerlessness,” he said. “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.”

Holy Week this year is going to look different for Catholics across the country. With no public Triduum liturgies, millions of people recently laid off, and with the fear of us or our loved ones becoming seriously ill – powerlessness is something that many of us are feeling right now. But when we look to the Cross, we see that Jesus showed us how to accept powerlessness and suffering.

“That’s the thing about the Cross – you’re powerless,” Fr. Simon said. “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 that 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,” Fr. Simon acknowledged. “And when I encounter those things it is the Lord inviting me to trust Him. The Cross is about powerlessness.”

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