A beautiful Crucifix hangs on the wall in our bedroom.
It reminds me of the one I picked out at the gift shop at Holy Hill, Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, in Hubertus, Wis., where my family attended Mass each Sunday when I was a girl.
“Which one should we get?” my dad had asked me one day as we viewed the array of small and large Crucifixes in the shop.
“That one,” I said, pointing at a Crucifix with a beautifully hand-painted Corpus.
“But”— my sister said, likely because that particular Crucifix was bigger and more expensive than the surrounding ones.
“Shhh!” my dad silenced her as he motioned to the clerk to bring down the beautiful Crucifix to which I pointed. He bought that Crucifix, had it blessed, and nailed it to the wall at home, where I passed it, reverenced it, and prayed before it for many years as I grew up.
I never did know the price he paid.
But I did know he loved me.
Asking for grace
Forty years later, as I pass the Crucifix in our bedroom each morning, I try to remember to touch the foot of the Cross and ask Our Lord for the grace to live a life worthy of His sacrifice.
I know my humanness will never allow me to be worthy enough for the price He paid, but I still must try to strive toward the holiness to which He calls us.
That can only begin with asking for the grace to get through this day, through this hour, through this minute.
Take heart
When I forget to do this and start rushing into my day without this prayer, then I know it’s time to reexamine my conscience, get to Confession, and reset my priorities according to God’s will.
Because my humanness inevitably always gets in the way.
But that’s why Our Lord gave us the Sacraments and the Church, so He could continue to be with us and strengthen us on our journey toward holiness.
And not just during Lent, but year-round.
In this third week, take heart, even if it has been a particularly difficult Lent.
Our Lord is always waiting to be with us and forgive us, even if we have to start over again and again.
“Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing” (Jl 2:12-13).
He loves us
We cannot comprehend the price He paid for our sins so that we could enter into Heaven, but we know enough by observing the overwhelming Love He shows us in the details of creation.
We know because of the Love He shows in every Sacrament and in every miracle of every minute of our lives. We know because of His promises.
“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age,” Jesus said (Matthew 28:20).
We know because Our Lord, the Creator of the universe, gave His only Son just so that we humans in our unworthy sinfulness can hope to be purified to be with Him in Heaven one day.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).
That’s Love. That’s sacrifice.
That’s the price He paid.
Just because He loves us.
Julianne Nornberg, mother of four children, is a teacher’s aide at St. John School in Waunakee.