The School of the Cross - New Evangelizers

Recently I was speaking with a priest and said something that has stayed with me. He said, “Priests are trained to go to the school of the cross.”

He said that it is a constant learning experience for priests to come back to the cross of Christ and to learn from Him. On that cross, we learn what it is to be a priest, to be a Christian.

I would imagine that many of us have been going to the school of the cross during this Lent. We have made certain Lenten sacrifices. Perhaps we attended extra liturgical events like the Stations of the Cross. These things we do in order to draw closer to the cross of Christ and to learn from the school of the cross.

There is a story that St. Maximillian Kolbe had a vision when he was young. He was presented a crown of glory and a crown of thorns. He was told to choose one or the other. Maximillian chose the crown of the thorns. He wanted to have the same crown that Jesus had in this world. He was learning from the school of the cross.

Those who know his story mostly know about how it ends. But Maximillian spent his whole life at the school of the cross. He traveled the world spreading the good news. He founded radio stations to broadcast the Gospel as far and wide as he could. He dedicated his life day after day to God. He picked up his cross and died to himself every day. This is part of the lesson from the school of the cross: if you die to yourself every day, then your final day is just another day that you have to die.

The school of the cross helps remove the sting of death. We see this in Maximillian’s story. I always find it fascinating that all of his great evangelical work is often forgotten. He is remembered most for the thing he did when he was reduced to just a number. Maximillian was sent to Auschwitz. One day, the commandant chose ten men from his barracks to be placed into a room and deprived of food and water until they died. One of the condemned men fell to his knees begging to be spared because he had a wife and child. Maximillian stepped forward and requested to be taken to death in this man’s place. When the commandant asked if Maximillian knew the man whose place he was taking, the priest said no. But Maximillian said that the man had a wife and child, but he did not. Maximillian was taken and locked away with the other without food or water. Normally, the prisoners in this situation would be howling like beasts by the second day. But the guards who witnessed this said that they only heard prayers and singing from that cell. After ten days, Maximillian and few others were still clinging to life. The guards took them and injected them with carbolic acid to kill them.

Maximillian Kolbe learned from the school of the cross. He spent his whole life giving his life away so that he could do it in that final moment. At the school of the cross, he learned that real love is sacrifice.

Pope Benedict XVI made this point clear when writing about Jesus. Our redemption from the cross is not about the blood that was shed per se. If that were so, then it would make God the Father a blood God who desired violence to satisfy His vengeance. But Pope Benedict XVI said that the reason Christ goes to the cross is because it is the only way we would ever truly know who God is: God is love.

And love is expressed in complete self-donation. Jesus on the cross shows us that He is willing to pay any price just to have a chance that we would choose to be with Him forever. And in that love learn how we are supposed to love each other. We are to give our lives away.

Sadly I have known many people who have suffered greatly. Sometimes it turns them inward to depression and despair. But there are those who take those torments and use them to learn from the school of the cross.

I had a student who was dying from cancer. I will never forget the prayer service we had for him at my home parish. He was weak and wearing a mask to prevent anyone from getting him sick while he was on treatment. After the prayers he got up to speak in words so firm and plain, without any rhetorical flourish or fancy speech. He said, “People keep saying how sorry they are for what I’m going through. But I keep telling them, I’m good. When they ask me why… it’s God.”

I cannot do justice to the utter confidence of his simple words. In his suffering, he was learning from the school of the cross.

As we approach Holy Week, let us attend to our lessons. Let us sit at the foot of the Master as He gives His great, silent sermon at Calvary.

Let us learn from the school of the cross.

Copyright 2026, WL Grayson

W.L. Grayson

I am a devoutly Catholic theology teacher who loves a popular culture that often, quite frankly, hates me. I grew up absorbing every movie, TV show, comic book, science fiction novel, etc. I could find. As of today I’ve watched over 2100 movies and tv shows. They take up a huge part of my life. I don’t know that this is a good thing, but it has given me a common vocabulary to draw from in order to illustrate whatever theological point I make in class. I’ve used American Pie the song to explain the Book of Revelation (I’ll post on this some time later) and American Pie the movie to help explain Eucharist (don’t ask). The point is that the popular culture is popular for a reason. It is woven into the fabric of our lives and imaginations, for good or ill. In this blog I will attempt to bring together the things of heaven with the things of earth. Of course this goal may be too lofty for someone like me.