The Way of the Cross
"That's the way the world goes 'round"
The Monk by the Sea, Caspar David Friedrich
But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Romans 6.8
Once again—and please forgive me—John Prine says it best: “That’s the way the world goes ‘round / You’re up one day, the next, you’re down / It’s half an inch of water and you think you’re gonna drown / That’s the way the world goes ‘round.” He’s not being cynical. He’s just telling the truth. That’s life as most of us know it.
The Serenity Prayer invites us to accept “hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is.” I love that line. That might sound a little grim at first, until we realize that life is inevitably full of suffering. To live, in some real sense, is to walk in the way of the cross. “That’s the way the world goes ‘round.”
Even Jim Carrey, of all people, has reflected on what that walk looks like. A few years back he said: “Ultimately, I believe that suffering leads to salvation. We have to, somehow, accept—not deny—our suffering and feel our losses. And then we make one of two decisions. We either go through the gate of resentment, which leads to vengeance… or we go through the gate of forgiveness, which leads to grace.”
The way of the cross eventually finds us all. Thankfully, we do not walk it alone. It has been walked already—by the One who meets us in our suffering, and who leads us, always, toward grace.
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first He suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifcully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ Your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer)
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