During this time of the pandemic, instead of focusing just on the cross that Christ died on – a death that was for us…what if we spent some time on the deaths that happen to us…to focus on our crosses and on our dying that needs to occur each day? In other words of the need to die to our egos, our strategies, our politics, and our prejudices. If not, then are we missing the point Christ was making when he called for us to carry our crosses? Check it out…

1. 02 April 2021 Good Friday Services Princeton, NJ
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During these past weeks of Lent, my homilies have focused on the quintessential theme of life, death
and rebirth – or what some call order, disorder, and reorder. However you look at this universal
pattern, one thing is for sure – there is no skipping the process. There is no reorder without
disorder…there is no rebirth or resurrection without death. And so this afternoon we come face-to-
face with death as we gaze upon the cross of Christ.
The Cross: prior to COVID, during this liturgy we would have each come forward to reverence the
cross by bowing, kissing, kneeling and touching the wood – often in tears – giving thanks to Christ for
dying for us. And unlike last year, when this Church stood empty except for the presiding clergy, this
year while we are now able to have some of you here with us – we still have so many more who still
have to watch from home. So we gather, as best we can, still unable to hold onto our tradition of
coming forward to touch the cross. And as hard as this may be for some – perhaps it allows us an
opportunity to look at the cross differently.
Instead of the focus just being on the cross that Christ died on…and on his death some two
millennium ago – a death that was for us…what if we spent some time this afternoon on the deaths
that happen to us…to focus on our crosses and on our dying that needs to occur each day? It was
St. Paul who wrote to the Corinthians, “I die daily.” Which echoes the words of Christ when he said, “If
anyone would come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
I wonder what the disciples thought when they heard that? Some few years earlier they had already
walked away from their family and friends and jobs and everything in their life just to follow Jesus –
what more could Christ be asking for? Maybe many of us who have faced so much loss and hardship
this past year may be asking the same question. “God – what more are you asking of me?”
To answer that – and to look at the cross differently – it requires a deeper look into that line: “Take up
your cross.” For when we hear that directive we most often interpret it as the absolute need to
shoulder the burdens of our lives: the deaths, the losses, the illnesses, the addictions – as simply
crosses we are called to bear. But if we stop there, we totally miss the point Christ was making. For
when Jesus said those words, he meant that each day we must die to ourselves in order to follow
Christ. For his follow up line is, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life
for me, with save it.” And while over the centuries many people have been martyred for Christ – he
was speaking more about the need for each of us to die to ourselves – in other words of the need to
die to our egos, our strategies, our politics, and our prejudices – for such actions need to be crucified
and buried and we have to die a similar death.
Following Jesus may seem easy when life runs smoothly – but when the crosses appear in our lives –
when we come across something or someone or some event in our own life that requires some form
of personal “dying” – then our world is turned upside down. And how often, instead of facing this daily
death, do we just push God away and dig in deeper by building up our false selves? And we default
to pointing to the Cross as something Christ did for us…while missing the point that in our daily lives
we are called to do the same.

2. 02 April 2021 Good Friday Services Princeton, NJ
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So rather than only focusing on how Jesus died for our sins – this year I invite you to take the next
few minutes to sit quietly wherever you are – here or at home – and to go a bit deeper in your prayer
about the Cross – and to keep in mind that Jesus showed us that death – daily death – is part of life.
For there is no resurrection without death...no love without loss. Every day we are faced with
crosses…leading us to see and feel the ashes of our lives, while often finding it hard to shine light into
the darkness…leading us to…weep. But as Saint Oscar Romero once said, “There are many things
that can only be seen through the eyes that have wept.”
So, instead of coming forward to bend your knee at the cross what if we look to bend our hearts –
bend our very own lives in order to echo the radical love of Christ? And in doing so - what will our
tearful eyes then see? And how better will we be in holding onto the hope and the promise that out of
the crosses and ashes of our lives, that one day we will dance in the ruins and discover a sweet
consolation that can rise from our broken hearts.