The cross, the vocabulary of love and humility.
September 14 2019: Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
A Peruvian proverb says, “Only he who carries it knows how
much the cross weighs.”
“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your
Cross you have redeemed the world.” The cross, for Christians, holds a special
significance. It is before all, the center point of our faith. It speaks words
of humiliation, humility, sufferings, love and salvation. Because, the cross
represents the instrument of Jesus’ sufferings and death. In that sense, Christians
are well known and described through that symbol. There cannot be Christianism or
Christianity without the symbolism of the cross. We are born at the foot of the
tree of the cross.
Moving from its first meaning of instrument of execution,
the Cross, with Jesus has gain a very specific definition, that of love; and
that is what today’s feast expresses. We talk of the Glorious Cross or the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross. In this feast, the absurd become the most evocative;
the shameful becomes the expression of glory.
We are taken back, in to the Good Friday, to reflect on the essence
of our faith and of our Christian identity, the fount of salvation. Without the
cross we are nothing, but sinners condemned to die in their sinfulness. Through
the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, God reconciled us to himself and saved us.
Through the crucifixion of Jesus, we read everything about God; or more, God
tells us everything about himself. Because the cross speaks the greatest word
about God, his Love.
In today’s extract from the Gospel of St. John, the dialogue
between Jesus and Nicodemus, we read that, “God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might
have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world might be saved through him.” And actually, that is
the language of the cross. God transformed what was meant to be instrument of
humiliation, into expression of love, and a love, like a chalice gulped till
the last drop.
This jargon of love, “the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God.” (1 Cor 1:18) Because, through the Cross, we have a beautiful
contrast of the egocentric wisdom of human beings and the wisdom of God. For
human beings, suffering leads to the lost, and no one will easily dare suffer
for others. While for God, suffering and humiliation become the ransom for the
salvation of all.
Jesus raised on the Cross, attracts to him all those who
were condemned, because of sin, to damnation. This image was foreseen in the
Old Testament through the Bronze Serpent Moses mounted on the pole. As we read
in the extract of the Book of Numbers 21, the people sinned against God and
against Moses. Tired of the journey in the desert and its hardships, their
patience worn out and they complained. In response to their murmuring, as “punishment
the Lord sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that
many of them died.” The wage of their sin was death. But when they cried out to
him, the Lord was moved with compassion and showed them his love. He gave the
order to Moses who “made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and
whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent,
he lived.” Just as the bronze serpent became the payoff of sin and instrument of
life. So too, the cross of Jesus, ransomed us from sin and brought us life.
The cross, in that sense stands as healing remedy with dual
effects, spiritual and physical. The spiritual aspect is our healing from sin
and its consequences, and the physical, the healing from any other bodily impediments.
The cross, however, is not only a remedy. But it is also a
road, the high way of humility. Through the cross God gives us the supreme
thesis on humility. “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death
on a cross.” To save his creation from the damnation of sin, the Most High
humbles himself. Humility is an expression of love. Then, the greatest sign of
that love, he died on the cross; in the utmost humiliation. God created the
world out of love. It is only through of the same love that he could save it from
sin. So, love is the symbol of a new creation, and the cross gets it magnificent
message when it is read at the brilliance of love.
Nevertheless, to be honest, crosses have never been easy to
carry. Let us just look at our human sufferings and trials. Can one truly and
honestly love what makes him suffer? Only those labelled sadomasochists find
pleasure and joy or glory in the instrument of their trial. Humanly speaking,
we all despise suffering. We hardly suffer for ourselves. How much more, when
it is about suffering for others?
The cross of Jesus and today’s celebration
become an exhortation for us. It says that, tangible and genuine love has no
other expression than that of sacrifice and humility. He who cannot sacrifice
himself humbly for those he pretends to love, has truly never loved. Because, it
is when we go through hardships that we evaluate how much it costs to love.
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