SCRIPTURE READINGS TODAY, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2013, ARE FROM: Numbers 21:4b-9; Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-38; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17 Jesus said to Nicodemus: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For 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. (John 3:13-17) REFLECTION ON THE CROSS The Cross One of the greatest themes in world literature, in poetry, in drama, in epics, in fiction of all kinds, and in historical narrative, is the curse of suffering and death. Particularly powerful is the spectacle of suffering that does not appear to be just, and death at the end of suffering that has no apparent purpose. One could make a case for asserting that much of the religious life of man is a response to the mystery of suffering and evil, and the student of religion could well approach his researches with the question of how the religion he is studying deals with suffering and death. What meaning does this or that religion discover or attribute to suffering and evil? To take an obvious instance, Buddha several centuries before Christ set out to find the answer to the burden of suffering that afflicts man. He believed that he had found the answer – and the Christian would grant that Buddha found some elements of the answer. Into this world‑wide and enduring dilemma, the living God has intervened with his revelation. Ultimately evil and suffering have their origin in the sin of man, and God has sent his remedy for sin. That remedy is to be found in the Person of Christ who not only redeems man from sin but, in the gift of his Holy Spirit, sanctifies him. This grand remedy is offered to all, and it is the responsibility of all Christ’s faithful to bring Christ to others, for in him is found every heavenly blessing. But now, there is a remarkable feature of this work of man’s redemption. It is that obedience in the midst of incalculable suffering, culminating in death, is the divinely chosen means of redemption and sanctification. It is not just that Christ by his obedience saved us from our disobedience. He saved us by the Cross. That is to say, he saved us not just by his obedience but by his obedience unto death. His passion and death was the distinguishing and irreplaceable context whereby his obedience was tested and manifested. Man’s disobedience was atoned by Christ’s obedient embrace of his suffering and death on the Cross. St Paul speaks of the foolishness of the Cross. Christ chose, in obedience to his heavenly Father, the path of suffering, that suffering that was part and parcel of his witness to the truth unto death. It is hard to think of anything like it in the history of religions. Mahomet did not embrace obedient suffering as such in order to atone for mankind’s sin. Nor did Buddha. The embrace of the Cross is distinctive of Christianity and the connection between the path of the Cross and redemption is of itself a mystery. Furthermore, Christ made it plain that if anyone wishes to be his disciple, that person must deny himself, take up his cross – we notice the use of the term ‘the cross’ – every day, and follow in his footsteps. The Christian embraces the cross, he chooses to take it up and he does so out of love for Jesus and a desire to be with him and to walk with him during the course of life. His path is that of the acceptance of whatever suffering is entailed in doing God’s will. Indeed, it is more than the mere acceptance of it. The one who loves Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit also actively embraces the cross. We see this exemplified countless times in the history of Christian holiness and in the saints of the Church. They loved the Cross because they loved Christ. They chose the path of difficulty and mortification out of love for Christ who embraced his passion and death for their sake. For the man in the street, as we might call him, this is foolishness. It is a foolishness even to many a Christian – to those Christians who have not yet embarked on a generous following of Christ. Such persons, to use St Paul’s expressions, are still on the milk of religion and have not yet passed on to the meat of the Christian religion. All this is to say that the Christian religion exalts the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and holds it up for our veneration and imitation (John 3:13‑17). The path to holiness in Christ lies in embracing the cross of Christ and in exalting it in our own life. St Paul writes, “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus”, and as he writes again, “with Christ I am nailed to the Cross.” This is the true answer to the problem of suffering in the life of each person and in the world. We must approach it with the mind of Christ and in union with him. If we suffer with Christ, we are on the path to dying with him. If we die with him we shall rise with him, and if we rise with him we shall reign with him. Let us pray for the signal grace to look on obedient suffering as Christ did, and to live this out in our daily life. (E.J.Tyler)
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 16:08:09 +0000
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