Maxim Monday: Living the Passion...passionately

Esteem the world and its vanities no more than dung. (Phil. 3:8) Let the world be crucified to you and you to it; (Gal. 6:14) that is to say, "despise the world which is only illusion" (1Cor. 7:31) and reject its maxims which are full of deceit and impiety. Maxims of the Little Institute, #5

Perhaps because I was a lector at my parish for many years, I automatically start refecting on the Sunday readings a few days beforehand. During Lent, it seems that each week the readings have been reminding me of a Maxim for this blog post. When I read the second reading for the fifth Sunday of Lent, I thought of Maxim 5 but everything in me rebelled at the thought of using it -- too graphic...too messy...too negative about the world we're called to embrace.

Then I looked across my room at the Peruvian sculpture pictured above. It was a gift from a former student. But it also reminds me of our pilgrimages to Mexico. On two occasions we were there during Holy Week. On Good Friday we walked through the streets with the people of one of the colonias for the stations of the cross. Various groups were assigned to carrying the cross to the next station. Each time someone announced the name of the next group, clusters of men, women, youth, emerged from the crowd and proudly took their turn.  It was obvious that this was a real honor.

After the 14th station on the way into the church, I heard someone announce, "mujeres religiosas." I tried to pretend I didn't understand enough Spanish. For some reason I did not want to carry that cross. But I knew full-well they were calling for the women religious in the procession to carry the cross from the 14th station into the church. I attempted hiding in the midst of our students. It didn't work. The Benedictine Sisters of Guadalupana who were the leaders of our pilgrimage sought me out and there I was, one of about ten sisters from various congregations, leading a procession of hundreds of Mexican people and carrying the cross much in the same fashion as pictured in this sculpture.

What does this have to do with Maxim 5? Carrying that cross turned out to be a profound moment of awareness. In the midst of a people who had so little the "vanities" of a consumer-driven world were stripped away. The focus was on the Passion of Christ Jesus and of living passionately in the midst of our suffering world. Is this not how we are at one with Christ crucified today?