The feast of the Holy Cross brings a special little joy to Franciscans everywhere, because it reminds us that the great feast of the Stigmata is coming soon. All of the accounts of Francis' great mystical experience set the stage by saying that he was off praying alone around the time of this feast.
The Cross, most simply, is an intersection of a vertical and a horizontal beam. In this way it points to the most concentrated intersection of God's passion and human experience. And this point of contact, by God's mysterious design, is human suffering, loneliness, and despair.
So if you want to find God you have two choices. Go sit with your sisters and brothers who are suffering, or, if you're really brave, sit with the secret places you hate inside yourself where you are broken and ashamed and feel all alone.
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