When People Say “Take Up Your Cross” - Helping Catholics Reclaim the Truth of its Meaning

I’m writing this from the bayous of Cajun country in Louisiana. As a former French colony, there are still some small rural areas where upward of 20% speak Cajun at home. Having religion and being Catholic are the same thing here. They even call the county government a “parish” owing back to the time when the Church was the main organizer of society and culture.  

On this trip, I learned about Charlene Richard (pronounced REE-chard), the tragic and heroic story of a cheerful 12 year old girl who died of Leukemia in 1959. When she learned of her fate, she didn’t just endure her suffering; she joyfully accepted it and offered it for the sake of others.  They call her the “Little Cajun Saint” and Catholics here have a devotion to her.   But the context of her story is often lost in a modern world where we can sometimes tell people to embrace their suffering as a way to make THEM more holy, not us. 

For those of us who are LGBT or divorced and remarried Catholics, the phrase “take up your cross” has been both harmlessly cast upon us and occasionally weaponized by those that want to keep the parish pews pure. You can experience gay thoughts as long as you keep them secret and hidden. The modern approach to suffering for its own sake treats it like a virtue. Unfortunately, this simple reading is a profound departure from Catholic tradition. It treats the cross as a prison, not as a path to the fullness of life.