Moments after being appointed the first Pope, Peter is condemned as Satan. Peter was appointed Pope because he led the apostles in confessing faith in Jesus’ divinity: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Peter was condemned as Satan because he opposed the Cross, the means of human redemption. Satan tempted Jesus from the Cross during the forty days in the desert; now Peter does the same. Although both Satan and Peter oppose the Cross, they do so for different reasons. Satan opposed the Cross because he wanted to keep humanity separated from God, prisoners of eternal death. Peter opposed the Cross because he did not want the Lord to suffer.

Suffering is the result of the deprivation of some good. There is physical suffering, emotional suffering, psychological suffering, and spiritual suffering. Each of these forms of suffering are caused by the deprivation of some good. In the ancient world, the Cross was an instrument of extreme physical suffering. It was a weapon, designed to deprive criminals of their dignity and their life.

The default human response to suffering is aversion. This is because, on a human level, suffering seems merely to deprive us of good things. Therefore, it is to be avoided at all costs. Yet, as the Lord points out to Peter, aversion to suffering leads us away from God: “The way you think is not God’s way but man’s.” Contemporary Western society is paralysed by an aversion to suffering. This aversion to suffering leads directly to the justification of grave evils, such as abortion and euthanasia.

Jesus responds to his suffering with acceptance rather than aversion. Jesus’ life was taken away from him: he was put in chains, condemned, led to Calvary, and crucified. But, as Jesus explained at the Last Supper, “I lay down my life… No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord,” (John 10:17-18). Jesus’ human life was a good gift from the Father. When that gift was taken away by the Cross, Jesus chose to make the loss of his life a gift of his life back to the Father. The life that was taken became a life given (Fr Jacques Philippe, Interior Freedom). Jesus accepts his Cross because it is not merely an instrument of suffering: it is an opportunity for love.

Each of us have a cross. Our cross is anything which deprives us of some good thing, resulting in suffering. As a priest, you get to know your people’s crosses. Some of the crosses I know you carry include physical or psychological illness, trauma, financial hardship, infertility, difficult or broken marriages, loneliness, and the death of loved ones. Your cross is anything which deprives you of some good thing.

What interests Jesus is how we respond to our cross. Following Jesus means bravely taking up our cross: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.” When circumstances cause the loss of some good thing, we can choose to give that good thing back to the Father who gave it to us as an expression of our love for Him. We have the power, in union with Jesus, to make what is taken from us – by life, events, or other people – into an offering of love. The way we respond to our cross reveals our hearts.

Growing up, my grandparents would often encourage me to “offer it up” when something bad happened. Many of us are familiar with this common Catholic saying. Often, however, we misunderstand it. Sometimes it can come across as trite and dismissive of our sufferings. Yet this saying is extremely profound. When we say “offer it up” we are not suggesting that we are offering God something negative or evil. God does not value evil or suffering for its own sake. God values gifts of love. So when we say “offer it up” what we mean is this: offer up to God as a gift of love the good thing that has been taken from you by circumstance.

Sometimes, when suffering comes our way, all we see is the negative. When the cross comes to us, it is imperative that we have a clear picture of the good thing that the cross is taking from us. That good thing is what becomes our gift of love to God. If we are going to give God a gift, we need to know what the gift is.

Lord Jesus, my cross is physical illness. You said, ‘I lay down my life; no one takes it from me.’ In the same way, no one takes my good health from me; I give it to the Father through you.

Lord Jesus, my cross is infertility. You said, ‘I lay down my life; no one takes it from me.’ In the same way, no one takes my fertility from me; I give it to the Father through you.

Lord Jesus, my cross is not having found someone to marry. You said, ‘I lay down my life; no one takes it from me.’ In the same way, no one takes marriage from me; I give it to the Father through you.

Jesus has given us a way to take up our cross: the Mass. The Mass makes present Jesus’ eternal gift of himself to the Father. When we come to Mass, we are not meant to simply be spectators: we are meant to be participants. In recent decades, ‘participation in the Mass’ has been profoundly misunderstood. Active participation in the Mass is not measured by ‘taking all the priest jobs’. Rather, active participation in the Mass is measured by active participation in the Cross. The Mass is the way we unite our crosses to Jesus’ cross, our sufferings to Jesus’ suffering, our sacrifices to Jesus’ sacrifice, our love to Jesus’ love.

There is a point in the Mass when Jesus actually tells you to unite your sacrifice to his sacrifice. After the offertory, the priest says, “Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father.” In the Mass, the priest is Jesus. The priest’s words and actions are Jesus’ words and actions. Through the priest, Jesus speaks to the Father and speaks to us. So when the priest says “my sacrifice,” the priest is not speaking of his own sacrifice; rather, Jesus is speaking of his sacrifice. At that moment, Jesus speaks of his sacrifice in the first person, just as he speaks of his Body and Blood in the first person at the consecration. At the offertory, it is Jesus who says to you: pray that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Almighty Father. What are the crosses that are causing you suffering? What good things have been taken from you by the Cross? At the offertory of the Mass, lay the good thing that has been taken away from you on the altar with the life of Jesus.

Jesus’ act of love was so good that it merited a reward: resurrection to eternal life. Jesus gave his human life to the Father and, in return, was raised to eternal life. He received more from the Father than he gave away. Jesus’ love transformed his suffering into a meaningful and fruitful sacrifice. Resurrection to eternal life is the reward of all who take up their cross and follow Jesus. We, too, receive more from God than we ever give away. When taken up out of love for God, our crosses become profoundly fruitful. “Anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”