Saturday Feb 23 Lenten Post. Cross work

I have never been attracted to the traditional Lenten practices of meditating on the passion of Christ, the sufferings of the cross and so on. I understand it as something that points us to the events of Holy Week and Easter. “We are going to the cross with Jesus.” Or I can understand the cross as a way of symbolizing our practices of self denial. Yes, I know it can be a traditional way of reflecting on how much he loved us; suffering for us, and went through for us. That was, I suppose, the thinking behind the popularity of Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ, " Still, I have wondered if there is another intuitive layer to this.

But then Richard Rohr’s insights help me see that all of this suffering and crucifixion language really is a different type of vicarious suffering and that it might be pointing me to a way of life for my own paler sufferings. Its not about something “out there” in the life of Christ or out there on the liturgical calendar. Its an iconic map that takes me into my soul; its about moving into my own wounds , vulnerabilities,, limitations---- to surrendering;
the hole of the soul., to die to my self.
Read this. And let it work on you, or in you.

Do you realize with what difficulty surrender will come to a fixing, managing mentality? There's nothing in that psyche prepared to understand the spiritual wisdom of surrender. All of the great world religions teach surrender. Yet most of us, until we go through the hole in our soul—our weak spot in the middle—just don't think surrender is necessary. But we have to face our limitations, it seems, in the interior world. That's our liberation theology. We must recognize our own poor man, our own abused woman, the oppressed part of ourselves that we hate, that we deny, that we're afraid of. That's the hole in our soul. It's the way through, maybe the only way, says the crucified Jesus.

from Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps Richard Rohr

Now what does it mean to hear the words of Christ; "take up your cross and follow me..."
to die and rise with Christ!