Joke: One Sunday, the pastor was finishing up a series on marriage. At the end of the service, he was giving out small wooden crosses to each married couple. He said, "Place this cross in the room in which you fight the most and you will be reminded of God’s commandment of love and you won’t argue as much." One woman came up after the service and said, "You’d better give me five crosses."

Each of us has our cross to carry, and some of us have other crosses to carry as well. However, have we ever wondered what happened to us before we were conscious of carrying a cross or carrying some other crosses? What is the cross that we are talking about here? Perhaps, the cross that we carry might be our job, working so many hours and getting paid so little, busy with work and busy at home as well. Instead of relaxing after work, we are busy with keeping up what’s going on on Facebook. Instead of relaxing after a long day at work, we have to face our children’s needs such as taking them to school for sports events, concert events, competition events, or whatever it is. Instead of relaxing after a hectic day at work, we have to cook the food and clean the house, while our spouse doesn’t even bother to lift his or her fingers to help, and many other challenges we might have to encounter. These, perhaps, are the moments that we carry our cross and carry others’ cross. What happens to us before we are conscious of carrying our cross or the crosses of others? To answer this question, let’s examine the picture that John captured and reported in today’s The Passion of the Lord.

Saint John captured a powerful picture of Jesus’ face before his sentence to carry the cross. After being scourged and placing a thorn crown on his head, Pilate presented him to the people and said, “Hecce homo” translated, “Behold the man!” In the presence of the Prefect, Pontius Pilate, the chief priests, the soldiers, the guards, the Jews, and perhaps, the entire human race, they all want to crucify Jesus whose appearance might be disfigured that Pilate said, “Behold the man!” Have you ever watched the movie “The Passion of Christ” by Mel Gibson? His face was all blood with a thorn crown placed on his head, or rather saying, his face was disfigured, not the face of a human being anymore. Did he bring it upon himself after healing the sick, curing the disease, defending the widow and the oppression, and raising the dead back to life again? Or rather, because of the jealousy, the envy, the pride, the self-centeredness, they disfigured the face of the Son of God, disfigured his human face?

The moment that we are conscious of carrying a heavy cross on our shoulder or carrying someone’s cross on our shoulder, the moment that we need to examine ourselves what causes us to carry a cross or carry someone’s cross? The moment we cheat on our spouse, the moment we distant from our spouse, the moment that we don’t pay attention to our spouse’s needs or our children’s needs, the moment that we isolate ourselves in a secret place to fulfill our flesh desires and to fulfill our pleasure, the moment that we don’t want to listen to our parents, our teachers and the authorities above us, the moment that we cheat it on our homework, our tests, and many other moments, these might be the moments that we disfigure the image of likeness of God on our human face, our human dignity, our human being which God created good right from the beginning. With all the good things that Jesus did, they disfigured his human appearance before making him carry a cross, what good things have we done in the relationship with our spouse, our children, with one another at work, in school, or our community? Have we ever disfigured the face of our own, the face of others, especially the face of our loved one by the work of cheating, lying, criticizing, judging, manipulating, falsely testifying, verbally arguing, fighting, harboring lustful thoughts, hateful resentments, storing hatred and anger, and many other negative feelings and actions that might disfigure our human appearance or others’ human appearance? The cross that Jesus carried is the only Holy Cross that brought salvation to the whole human race, what is the cross that you and I are carrying? The decision is yours.