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THE BLOGWelcome to Onward Catholic - The Blog, where we explore the depths of Catholic faith, spiritual growth, and the journey toward hope and healing on the way to Heaven.
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Good Friday. The day of Our Lord’s suffering, passion, and death. There are not words enough to do justice to the pain and suffering and glory of this day. Barabbas was chosen to be released over Christ. This choice was so that God's will would be carried out. And the passion of Christ begins. Christ was chained to a post and scourged. His body brutally beaten with cruel weapons. Weapons that sliced His sacred skin. Weapons that when thrown upon His body took a hold of His flesh and ripped it off of His body. And He went through this because HE. LOVES. YOU. A crown of thorns was placed upon His head. Actually, people believe that it was more of a cap of thorns. The 2 inch thorns were forced into the sacred head of Our Lord. Blood ran down His face joining with the rest of the blood that covered His body. And He tolerated this all because HE. LOVES. YOU. Jesus carried the cross to Golgotha. The heavy physical burden. The wood rubbing against Christ’s skin, irritating it even more. The dirty wood shoving splinters through Christ’s bloody ripped skin. He falls on the gravel three times. The gravel pushing up through the gaping wounds all over His body. The burden of the cross falling down with our blessed Lord. He carried His cross all because HE. LOVES. YOU. When Jesus reached the place called Skull, He was rudely placed upon the cross. Nails that are thought to have been 7-9 inches long were hammered to Jesus’ feet and His hands, just below the wrist. A block of wood was fastened to the cross under Christ’s feet which left His knees slightly bent. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The nails driven through His hand and wrist area did not break a bone but they are thought to have hit a major nerve that controlled movement and feeling of the shoulders. Because of the strain on the nerve, Jesus lacked the ability to lift up His head to breathe. To be able to breathe, Christ had to put force on His feet that were nailed onto the block of wood so that He could force the rest of His body up to breathe. He went through this pain because HE. LOVES. YOU. The soldiers mocked Jesus and made fun of Him. They told Him that He should save Himself. And He could have. He is God. He can do anything. But He chose to stay on the cross. Obedience brought Him to the cross It was love that kept Him there. His love for YOU. Love kept Him on the cross. Staying on the cross showed extreme humility. His love brought about humility. He humbled Himself to death, even death on a cross because HE. LOVES. YOU. Jesus was crucified between two criminals. One on His right. One on His left. One criminal joined in with the soldiers in mocking Jesus. The other one repented of His sins and asked for Christ’s forgiveness. Confession. Right there. On the Cross. “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” He instituted the sacrament of confession and is gracious enough to forgive us of our sin because HE. LOVES. YOU. Mary standing at the foot of the cross. Her pain inexpressible. Her motherly desire to reach out and help her son was a desire like no other. But She could do nothing. It was in this moment that Her fiat was required to be a silent one. Her yes had to be quiet. She could only pray. And then listen to Her son when He said, “Woman, behold your son.” He would not leave His mother alone. He will not leave us alone simply because HE. LOVES. YOU. At about 3 o’clock, The hour of mercy, in Jesus’ great pain and agony, He cried out to His father, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Jesus then proceeded knowing that His time was almost finished and said, “I thirst.” He was given some wine on a sprig of hyssop. This completed the fourth cup of the Passover from the night before and Jesus said, “It is finished.” Thus, that line has many meanings. The Passover was now finished. Christ’s time on earth was almost finished. The suffering on the cross was almost finished. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father into Your hands I commend My spirit.” Jesus bowed His head and died. The earth quaked and people came to believe. “Truly this was the Son of God!” “This man was innocent beyond doubt.” This man was innocent. Yet He was obedient to the point of death on a cross so that we might live. Truly He loved us. Truly He loves us. And truly He always will. He gave His life for us. The least we can do is live our lives for Him because HE. LOVES. YOU. 
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The simple truths are often the most profound. Too often we take these simple truths and try and compound them, as if in their simplicity they are somehow deficient. The simplest truth of all, and equally the most profound truth, is spoken through Scripture when John tells us that God is love.
God is love. Take a moment to hear those words as if for the first time. Maybe repeat the phrase to yourself a few times first emphasizing the word God, then emphasizing the word is and, finally, emphasizing the word love. Think about this. God, this eternal, omniscient, omnipotent being can be “summed up” as this one “thing,” love. He is love. Since He is love, He must, by definition, by implication, love. He must love because He is love. Since He is love and must love, He must have always had an object of His love, someone to love. This someone would need to be someone who equally always was, is and will be. That would be His Son, Jesus. And this love between Father and Son is so real, so reciprocal, so alive that it always was, is and will be the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Let’s take this a step further. In a sense, God cannot not love because He is love. Love is not only who He is, it is also what He does. God loves us no matter what. Nothing we do can separate us from the love of God. God even loves those souls in Hell. While they have chosen to not accept and, in fact, reject His love, He never stops loving them. Were God ever to stop loving them (or us) they would cease to exist for it is the very love of God that is the source of all life. It is this love which triumphs over evil and conquers death, which forgives sin, which nourishes us in Eucharist. It is this love that endured the pain, suffering and even death on a cross, all for our sake. God is love is beyond simple; it is beyond profound. It is God, Himself. This week as we focus on the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, keep in mind this truth, that God is love. Allow each Station of the Cross bring you to a realization of His never ending love for you. From the palms of Sunday, to the communion of Thursday, to the grief of Friday, to the desolation of Saturday, to the glory of Sunday remember that God is love and that God loves you! “The Cross is the crucible in which God fashions saints.” The Cross is the big melting pot in which we are bent, broken, challenged, changed, melted, warped, and formed. Formed to the shape of the Cross. The shaped that saved us from eternal death. The shape that will lead us to holiness. It’s like taking medicine though, we know it will make us better, but we just don’t want to do it. We know that the Cross will benefit our lives but we have decided that we deserve to not suffer. We think of our crosses as these big giant issues, health problems, money issues, family tiffs but really, some of the most challenging and beautiful crosses that we can carry are the minuscule daily ones. The ones that we don’t even think of as crosses. The little things that make us groan and complain. Sometimes I wonder how much I would actually have to say to people if I was forbidden from complaining. I’m guessing I would be a very quiet person. All this day in and day out complaining could instead be conversation. Conversation with Christ. Relating to Christ, thanking Christ for the Cross. “May Jesus and his Cross reign forever.” Suffering, trials, and little inconveniences throughout the day should not be dreaded. Remember, they are what is leading us to holiness. What should change is the way in which we respond to them. I know I’m not generally thankful for my crosses, I don’t normally ask for help in carrying them, and definitely not asking for them to reign forever. But maybe I should. After all, they are leading us to holiness.  I was listening to this song by The Offspring. It is called Fix You and it really is such a beautiful song and such a cry for help. The cry that is alive in all of our hearts. “…I wish I could fix you And make you how I want you I wish I could fix you And I wish you could fix me I wish I could heal you And mend where you are broken I wish I could heal you And I wish you could heal me… She sees a million stars, like holes in the sky All God’s tears for her they cry And I am in her rain” In this song, Dexter Holland is crying out. Someone he knows is hurting. He is hurting for his friend. He is hurting because his friend is hurting. He is hurting because he cannot heal that person. He knows in his humanness that he can do nothing to heal or fix this person. I think it would be safe to assume we have all been in situations where we want to just simply make everything better for someone. Even if it is something as simple as trying to comfort a toddler who has fallen or if it is something more serious such as a friend going through depression. It is so very painful to see someone in pain and know you can do nothing to help them. Mother Mary knows this all too well. She was strong enough, bold enough to go to the foot of the cross where Her Son was bruised and beaten and then innocently hung on the cross and left to die. The movie The Passion presents this scene of the crucifixion so well. Mary helplessly kneels at the foot of the cross while gripping the gravel of Calvary with her face writhing in pain. The pain of watching Her Son die and yet still, the greater pain of KNOWING She can do NOTHING to help Him. Among all this pain and sorrow there is still hope. That hope is Jesus Christ. He alone can heal you. He alone can fix you. He alone is sufficient. He IS love, of course He can heal, fix, and restore. We are all broken. We are all torn apart. We are all in need of healing. We need to be fixed. We need to be touched by the healing grace of the Healer. Bring all your brokenness to the foot of the cross this Lent. Jesus is the ultimate healer. He can mend where you are broken. He can fix you. Run to Him with your broken heart. Run to Him with all your sorrows. Take time this Lent to humble yourself down to the most broken area of your heart and let the Savior heal you and fix you. He will not let you down. He has the power to heal. Jesus IS the healer. Go. Run. Be healed. “So you thought you had to keep this up
All the work that you do So we think that you're good And you can't believe it's not enough All the walls you built up Are just glass on the outside So let 'em fall down There's freedom waiting in the sound When you let your walls fall to the ground We're here now This is where the healing begins, oh This is where the healing starts When you come to where you're broken within The light meets the dark The light meets the dark Afraid to let your secrets out Everything that you hide Can come crashing through the door now But too scared to face all your fear So you hide but you find That the shame won't disappear So let it fall down There's freedom waiting in the sound When you let your walls fall to the ground We're here now We're here now, oh This is where the healing begins, oh This is where the healing starts When you come to where you're broken within The light meets the dark The light meets the dark Sparks will fly as grace collides With the dark inside of us So please don't fight This coming light Let this blood come cover us His blood can cover us This is where the healing begins, oh This is where the healing starts When you come to where you're broken within The light meets the dark The light meets the dark” Tenth Avenue North- Healing Begins  "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return."
Fortunately, we clarified with the middle school kids that these are the ashes from the palms used on Palm Sunday of the previous year, not the ashes of the deceased. The relief washed over their faces like a tidal wave. There is still an element of mortality present though. Our bodies will die. Our souls have the opportunity for life everlasting. With all credit due to Christ. We truly are nothing without Him. We have an opportunity these days of Lent to become even more dependent on Christ. De Montfort adopted a motto for his life, ‘God alone’. His life and writings used God alone as the focal point. Lent is a brilliant time to reinstate 'God alone' in our lives. Removing something from our lives allows more room for God. “My God…I adore you and acknowledge you as my sovereign Lord and Master upon whom alone I depend.” De Montfort knew that we must free ourselves from our worldly idols and from our own egos in order that we might fully experience and comprehend adoring God alone. “True adoration is a gift from on high and takes the form of responding in love to the revelation, in Christ, of the true face of God.” “To adore this presence means to become involved in the disappearance from the world of idolatries and ideologies that become the means of oppressing the children of God.” Lent for us can be like Narnia for the Pevensie kids. Entering a new world, with new opportunities. Letting go of the things of this world, and adoring the God who so loves us.  For it is God who works in you, both so as to desire, and so as to act, in accord with his good will.
Philippians 2:13 So much of what we are called to do in spiritual warfare is intercessory prayers for others. If it seems like your prayers go unanswered, or perhaps more accurately, unfulfilled, there may be a good reason. You find yourself praying for others, praying for their conversion, and yet it seems as if there is no change in their behavior. They are still not attending Mass, they are still drinking, they are still involved in the New Age or the occult, they are still engaging in immoral sexual activity, etc. What could be wrong? Doesn’t God want them to change? Doesn’t He want them to grow closer to Him? Doesn’t He want them to live in His will? Of course He does; He is, after all, our Father. So, then, what is the problem? The “problem” may just be in how you are praying. WELCOME!
Onward Catholic is more than a ministry; it is a message and a mission that was made for this very moment. Urged on by the love of Christ, our mission is to proclaim a message of hope and healing that moves us forward on the path to Heaven. By God's grace and for His glory, with the Church, Scripture and the Saints as our guides, we forge ever onward. Journey with us as we experience moments of hope and healing on the way to Heaven. Our Goal is Heaven. What's Yours? Heaven is our ultimate goal - and hopefully yours too. Yet, too often, we find ourselves stuck or struggling. We become frustrated or fearful. We encounter obstacles and roadblocks. We face trials and temptations. We are weak and wounded; we stumble and sin. Perhaps we even feel alone or ashamed. What are we to do, despair? No, never. We get up, turn back to God, and remember the great hope we have in Him. We seek Him and ask Him for the healing that leads to Heaven. At Onward Catholic, we help people who feel like they need some help along the way. Together, we can walk this path with faith and purpose. Our prayer is that this ministry becomes a resource for us all as we seek hope and healing on the way to Heaven. We have many resources to support you on your journey, from blogs and books to podcasts and inspirational quotes. Before we get there, though, we should begin at the beginning. Any journey begins with that first step. For us, that first step is always prayer. With that in mind, let us continue this journey together. Onward, Catholic! |
AuthorsJohn LaBriola and Rebecca Dodge Archives
April 2025
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