Cardinal-elect O’Brien says Christians must embrace suffering

By George P. Matysek Jr.

gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

ROME - Speaking inside an ancient church devoted to the Holy Cross in Rome, Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien challenged a group of Baltimore archdiocesan pilgrims to embrace suffering as Christ did – reminding them during a Feb. 16 Mass that suffering has redemptive value.

“Jesus does not explain why suffering and death are at the heart of his mission,” Cardinal-designate O’Brien said in his morning homily at Rome’s Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, “but he insists upon it. He insists that unless we take up the cross of suffering and dying to self each day, we cannot be his disciples."

Cardinal-elect O’Brien said many people, including Christians, see no place for the cross in their lives today.

“A pain-killing culture embraces a cheerful Gospel,” he said, “cutting and pasting and eliminating – as Thomas Jefferson’s Bible, whatever seems foolish or beyond human reason.”

St. Paul insists that the message of Christ is foolishness to those who are perishing,” Cardinal-designate O’Brien said, “but for those who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

The cardinal-designate’s Mass was the second he celebrated with hundreds of pilgrims from the Baltimore archdiocese and others who traveled to Rome to watch Pope Benedict XVI present Cardinal-designate O’Brien with signs of his new office as a cardinal: a square-shaped red hat called a biretta and a special ring.

The Basilica of the Holy Cross is one of the seven pilgrimage churches in Rome. It contains pieces of what is believed to be the true cross of Christ. Cardinal-designate O’Brien noted that in the 4th century, St. Helena made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and discovered the true cross. She returned to the site of the present Holy Cross basilica and used tons of soil from the place of Christ’s death and resurrection to form a foundation for the new basilica.

“Those days marked the beginning of Christians’ special devotion to the cross on which Christ died,” Cardinal-designate O’Brien said, adding that signs of the cross continue to be used in liturgies and devotional practices today. Churches and homes also display the crucifix, he said.

Cardinal-designate O’Brien emphasized that Jesus does not delight in human suffering. Yet the cardinal-designate pointed out that “self-denying, dispossesive love” always involves pain and always yields new life. “Jesus experienced his death on the cross and his resurrection and returned to his father,” Cardinal-designate O’Brien said, “but not before leaving us a means to participate in that life-giving mystery as if we have been there in person.”

The Baltimore pilgrims visited several other churches during the day, including the Basilica of St. Mary Major and the Basilica of St. John Lateran. The pilgrimage day ended with a dinner reception during which Cardinal-elect O’Brien twice became emotional as he looked into a crowd filled with friends and family from Baltimore, New York and elsewhere.

“I'm so privileged to be a member of your family,” he said, pausing to collect his emotions before the crowd offered its support with sustained applause.

As he prepared to meet with Pope Benedict XVI Feb. 17, Cardinal-designate O’Brien called the coming days a “time of renewal.”

“It’s a momentous moment for me,” he said, “one that I never dreamed of, but - on your behalf, one that I will rejoice in and that I take very seriously.”