Fr. Todd 9/14/25

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake,

            We celebrate this weekend the Exaltation of the Cross.  The Cross which is a sign that God has done something about the mess.  Our lives our messy; the world is messy.  We have committed sins; we have suffered from those effects and the effects of other people’s bad choices as well.  He has taken it up on Himself in a universal way.  We need to participate in that by sharing our particular sins and messes with Him.  The Cross reminds us that We are worth it!  We can at times wonder how Jesus sees us.  Are we simply a bother to Him, a source of frustration and annoyance?  How much are we loved?  Look no further than the Cross to see.  The Cross reminds us that We have a Mission.  We are told in the Gospels that we need to pick up our crosses daily and follow Him.  Crosses can be bad things, they can be good things, and both together.  At times the cross is saying Yes to something that is challenging and other times the cross is saying No to something that we might like, but need to let go of.  But we follow the Lord, not ourselves.

            I love this painting called The Return.  I did some deep diving and discovered that my understanding of the picture had been wrong.  It isn’t of a soldier returning from war but a soldier praying for return of faith before going to war.  I quote here from a 1934 magazine article:

“Happening in at (sic) Holy Innocents Church, 37th Street, New York, one evening at dusk, just at the beginning of the World War, C. Bosseron Chambers, the noted artist, had his attention arrested by a man who knelt alone at the foot of a large crucifix.  The contrition expressed in the kneeling figure was inspiring and a conversation later on led to the man’s consenting to pose for a picture in Mr. Chambers’ studio, where comment on his unusual piety revealed a frank admission.  That very evening he had experienced true sorrow for a dissolute life, and a return of the Faith he had not practised since his boyhood in Brittany.  He was leaving in a few days to join the French Army.  The end of the story is contained in a letter received after peace was declared, in which he wrote that he had resigned command of his regiment to serve in the army of God in a monastery.”  https://archive.org/details/sim_the-lamp-catholic-monthly_1934-05-15_32_5/page/140/mode/2up

Such is the presence of the Cross in each of our lives!  Jesus, we thank you and we run to you!

Fr. Todd