“The Cross is good because it is an abundant source of all kinds of delight and consolation. It brings joy, peace, and grace to the soul.”
-St. Louis de Montfort (The Love of Eternal Wisdom, 95-96)

Joy, peace, and grace. I do not associate joy and peace with the Cross. To find joy, peace, and grace, I go not to Calvary but to Bethlehem. There we find the “good news of a great joy . . . a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10–12). There we find “the King who is our peace” (Vespers I of Christmas).

But Christ was born to save. This is the very reason he is named Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). The babe wrapped in swaddling cloths was the good news of great joy because he had come to die on the Cross. He had come to save. The Gospels emphasize how the disciples struggle to understand Jesus before the Lord comes to the Cross. Saint Louis de Montfort goes further and says, “NEVER THE CROSS WITHOUT JESUS; NOR JESUS WITHOUT THE CROSS” (The Love of Eternal Wisdom, 91). We cannot know Jesus unless we know the Cross. The Christmas mystery is enlightened by the Cross, for Jesus “loved the Cross from his infancy. At his coming into the world He received it from the hands of His Eternal Father in the womb of His Mother. He placed it ‘in the midst of His heart,’ there to reign” (The Love of Eternal Wisdom, 89-90). In Bethlehem too, then, we find the Cross, because there we find Jesus.

Joy, peace, and grace. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me’” (John 14:6). There is no other path to joy, peace, and grace but by the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus Christ. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). The Cross of Jesus must become our joy, our peace, and our grace. This is not an easy thing. Saint Mark describes the approach of Jesus and the disciples to the Cross as he narrates, “And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid” (Mark 10:32).

The disciples were afraid, even with Jesus walking ahead of them. It is as though they had not heard Psalm 23: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me” (Ps 23:4). What is the Lord’s rod and staff but the Cross? The Cross of Jesus teaches us the undying love of God and this is what gives us comfort. The Cross of Jesus must be our joy, peace, and grace. The Lord has walked ahead of us (cf. Mark 10:32, Col 1:18), but he is also with us right now and forever (cf. Matt 28:20). “Friends of Jesus Christ, drink of His bitter cup, and your friendship with Him will increase. Suffer with Him and you will be glorified with Him. Suffer patiently and even cheerfully. Yet a little while and the moment of suffering will be changed into an eternity of happiness” (The Love of Eternal Wisdom, 95).

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Image: Rogier van der Weyden, Saint Columba Altarpiece (detail)