Annually on 14 September, the Church commemorates the feast of the Triumph of the Cross or otherwise known as the Exaltation of the Cross.
The Cross to Mary MacKillop was the mainstay of her life. There was nothing that could take its place.
Mary wrote to her mother, Flora, that the Cross was her “portion and her sweet rest and support”. (26.2.1872) I believe by portion she meant that it was her share of human suffering. She believed that we were all born to suffer and that suffering, whether in the small or great trials of life, was to the glory of God. There was nothing masochistic in her attitude because it was her love of the Cross that made her happy and fulfilled. She spoke of the Cross as her sweet rest and support. There was nothing she could do about the crosses in her life. She could not avoid them. She could only accept them. Mary’s Cross was never an unpleasant burden she had to carry. It was like a support to an expectant mother, bearing the weight of a child that was heavy but welcome.
Mary told her mother that she could not be without her Cross and that she “would not lay it down for all the world could give”. There is a sense of triumph about these words. Her Cross was everything to her. She could live triumphantly in the love of Jesus her Lord. She knew that Jesus was triumphant on the Cross, his work on earth completed to the Father’s glory. She understood that her Cross which she bore was a triumph for her because she would go on doing the work of Jesus, teaching children, however poor. Without her Cross she would be lost. The Cross gave her direction and purpose in her life.
Mary MacKillop’s religious name was ‘Sister Mary of the Cross’ (Letter to her mother, 21.8.1867). She signed every letter she wrote to Father Julian Tenison Woods, ‘Mary of the Cross’. The Cross was part of her name and her identity. She lived by the power of the Cross in the triumphant light of resurrection. She carried her Cross without complaint, as a gift from God. Mary never shirked hardship because she saw it as Christ asking her to do something for Him. It was always with triumphant joy that she did what was asked of her. She never flinched even although she lived with what Father Julian described as a nest of crosses.(Letter to Mary MacKillop, 27.12.1870)
Mary knew that the more triumphantly she followed Christ, the more she walked the way of the Cross. Let us carry her in our hearts.
Margaret Paton rsj