St Josaphat Parish recently issued the following announcement.

Jesus Christ, crucified on the Cross is His sacrificial love for us. We all want to love and be loved. Charity is love in action, and love is to wish and to do good for the beloved. The love of Jesus Christ, the God-man, crucified is beyond our limited, limited human comprehension. St. Paul reminds us that while were still sinners, Jesus died for us. This is divine love. At times one can give of one's own life more easily than offer unto death the person whom one loves beyond all, and this is what God our Father has done.  

But the Cross is intertwined with tragedy and victory. Crucifixion was a form of execution that was relegated to the worst of offenders and was meant to prolong the agony and humiliate the condemned. Because Christ was innocent and voluntarily gave Himself over to scourging, humiliation, and crucifixion, His act of selfless love, the gift of offering Himself in sacrifice to atone for our sins, becomes victory. This is why St Paul can say; "It is no longer I, it is Christ who lives in me." Divine love, filled to the brim and therefore there was no room for any other thought or feeling, any other approach to anyone apart from love, a love that gave itself without reservation, sacrificial love, love crucified, but love exulting in the joy of life.  

Jesus tells us to; "Take up your cross and follow me", is not to be taken as something dark and frightening. We are told by God to; "Open yourself to love! Do not remain a prisoner of your own self-centeredness! Open yourself up! Look, there is so much love and there are so many to love. There is such infinity of ways that love can be experienced and fulfilling and accomplished. Open yourself to love, and love, that is the way of the Cross. Give of yourself unreservedly; exist for others, loving with one's whole being. This is the glory of the Cross."  So when we approach and venerate the Cross, when we think of Christ's crucifixion and hear the call to deny ourselves and carry our cross, we open ourselves to the flood of divine love that is both death to ourselves and openness to god in each and all. Let us learn the glory of crucified, sacrificial love which is stronger than death, stronger than hell, stronger than all things because it is the Divine Life, divine love conquering us and poured through us onto those who need to be loved in order to come to Life, to believe in love and themselves to become children of Love, children of Light, and inherit Eternal Life.

Original source can be found here.