The theme offered by Vie Liturgique magazine for the fourth Sunday of Lent is Standing before the cross, standing before love . We sometimes forget that the cross and love are intimately linked in salvation history. Because Jesus freely agreed to go to the cross, we receive Salvation. Why did he accept? He loved God with a love which surpasses all love. Since we are saved, there are people who say that it is useless to focus on the cross. Why discuss suffering when Christ is risen? There are others whose primary focus is on the suffering Christ, who experience our time on earth as a long purgatory before eternal life. Yet, both the cross and the resurrection nourish our faith. It is very simple - for Christ to be raised from the dead, he had to agree to go through a path of suffering. If we want to erase this suffering, we take away all the power of love that his resurrection has brought forth in our world. We have all experienced hardships that have made us grow, which have