By Fr. Dinh G. Votran, A.A.
The entire humanity is in suffering. Life is suffering. People often say: C’est la vie!
Even though life is suffering, sometimes I wonder, is it true? Life is still beautiful, even so beautiful and full of happiness. We all experience the moments in which we recognize the heart of people so pure and simple; but they are still in pain. It seems everyone can say that the road to perfection is so thorny and difficult. Many good people still experience the heaviness of the cross they bear daily. The way to perfection is still too heavy for people.
Where does suffering/pain come from? Is the root of suffering/pain the darkness of ignorance? Yes. The worst of all is to think of my ego and say everthing belongs of me. Humans like to cling tightly to the ego and refuse to let go. To let go of the ego is to die to the old, cramped, and sinful self. Look at Jesus, the divine Word of God, just say a word, then all the suffering/pain and darkness of the human being will disappear. Why does he need to die? It is also a cruel death. Does he need to die in order to wake human beings up from their ego and ignorance, to free their suffering/pain and sinful nature? Human beings chose to erect the Cross in order to warn all about a cruel death for those who are against human power. Now, Jesus died naked on the Cross.
From that moment on, all the cruelties and evils of the world hang on the Cross. All the sorrows, sufferings, sins, and insanity of the world hang there with Jesus. He opened a new way of living and a new phenomenon of life. It is a Religion, Christianity. From that moment on, Christianity always lifts high Jesus’ Cross as the sign of ultimate love, heartfelt forgiveness, and true liberation from sin. From that moment on, the new religion was born with half of it is bloody, screaming, broken, lonely, unable to breath, pierced to the heart, and then dead. From that moment on, the whole world is terrifying and scary! So creepy! The image of a dead Jesus on the Cross forever clings to the mind of everyone who called themselves Christians that the miserable and sinful nature of oneself, of others, of life must die. From that moment on, Christians lift up the Cross and sing: “This is the wood of the cross where the Savior of the world is hung.” From that moment on, God invites everyone to look at the Cross and ask themselves if they see their suffering/pain on the Cross? From that moment on, the whole world is also hanging on the Cross with Jesus to become pure and holy.
Whoever becomes a disciple of this dead Jesus on the Cross may not fully understand the way God solves the suffering/pain and sin of humanity. A disciple just needs to look at the Cross, gazing at it with respect and silence in order to know deep down in the heart that Jesus already carried their suffering and sin on the Cross. Each time one looks up at the Cross, one believes that they are loved and saved because all of their suffering/pain and sins are now placed in His suffering/pains.
Before suffering/pain and death, we are scared. Look up at the Cross, we can ask and let Jesus suffer and die instead. Look up at the Cross, we pray that we can gently and slowly die to our egos. The person I am is now dead, no longer mine. Nothing matters anymore, even my life is no longer important. Look up at the Cross and pray for my ego to die. When I look up at the Cross, I know now I am not alone on my pilgrimage. I walk with Jesus who suffers among the suffering of humanity.
Now I can say, C’est la vie! Life is beautiful, so beautiful and full of happiness in its suffering and pain because I am no longer to carry my suffering and pain alone.
