Inherit This Cross
Before Oblates take their first vows and receive our profession cross, we are taught why there is no body (no corpus) on this cross. It is to remind us that we are on that cross with Christ. It is our body that touches this cross. When we are baptized, we go through a death to the world and are brought to a new life in Christ. Deciding to take vows in religious life is a further consecration, a further immersion into our baptismal call: to die and rise with Christ. Our vows call us to take up our cross daily for the love of God and for the love of our brothers and sisters.
When I took first vows, I received a cross. It wasn’t a new cross, though. I inherited a cross from an Oblate who had lived before me and had passed away. My cross belonged to Fr. Joseph Bowler, OSFS. I never met Fr. Joe, and I still know very little about him, but I know that from the day he took his first profession of vows as an Oblate, Fr. Joe wore this cross all of his life, and when he passed, it was finally removed from around his neck.
Occasionally, when I pray or when I’m going through tough moments in life, I hold my profession cross in my hands. I examine its etchings and patterns. I look at the scrapes, dents, and scratches that are traced on the face of it, and I remind myself that this cross is something that I inherited. It witnesses a life before mine. It is a hopeful reminder that the Christian life, while at times difficult, is possible.
When this cross was removed from around Fr. Joe’s neck for the last time, something subtle and symbolic occurred: he was free from the burden of the cross. The cross that he received at his baptism, which he willingly consecrated and took upon himself at his first profession, was lifted from him, and he received the promise that Christ gave to him at baptism: that he would receive the fullness of Christ Himself. I like to imagine that when the profession cross was removed from his body, Christ was there looking at Fr. Joe, loving him, and said, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, rest, and enjoy the banquet that I have prepared for you.”
I love that I have inherited this cross, which Fr. Joe wore. It reminds me that this Oblate life, this Christian life, is possible and very much worth those moments when the cross feels heavy and burdensome. The cross that I now wear, he wore for most of his life. This cross has been carried through difficulties and challenges. It has witnessed sickness and suffering, and it was also there for all joys and moments of celebration, too. The fact is that no matter what happened in Fr. Joe’s life, in both the good times and the bad, the cross was there to remind him that the hardships of life are not the end. I pray it does the same for me.
Some of us may have inherited a cross from a relative or a friend. It may hang above our bed or around our neck. Yet, all of us who have been baptized in Christ have inherited the cross of Christ. St. Francis de Sales wrote that, “Mount Calvary (the Cross) is the academy of love.” Crosses can be seen as burdens, but when we learn to see our crosses as gifts, they become the most effective means of learning what it means to love and to love well.
Let the crosses that we mount on our walls, that we wear around our necks, or carry in our hearts be a call to live according to the love that the cross represents. Take hold of the cross and do not let go. Inherit this symbol and promise of Christ. Let it be a hopeful reminder that one day He will come and lift this cross from around our necks, just like He did for Fr. Joe, and say to us, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, rest, and enjoy the banquet that I have prepared for you.”
Mr. Jonathan Dick, OSFS
Oblate Seminarian
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