One of the most beautiful hymns that always kept me going in my sacerdotal and religious vocation is ‘Thank you for the Cross’. The great message that such a hymn powerfully bears witness to is the fact that, by dying on the Cross, God is continually transforming our being by His redeeming Cross. The liturgical feast of September 14, the Triumph of the Cross, is an extraordinary reminder of this reality.

Jews have always showed an instinctual aversion for the cross since the Jewish Scriptures plainly portray the cross as a curse. In effect, in the book of Deuteronomy we find: “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God; you shall not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance” (Deut 21, 22-23). Hence, for the Jewish understanding, the cross is a sign of corruption, debasement and defilement.

With the coming of Jesus on the scene of salvation history, there has been a radical shift of comprehension. Now, the Cross started being considered as God’s privileged means for saving fallen humanity. “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day” (Matt 20, 18-19). “The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise” (Luke 24, 7).

Additionally, in Pauline theology, the Cross is God’s power (see 1 Cor 1, 18) and wisdom (see 1 Cor 1, 24). The Cross per se has nothing special to be proud of. On the contrary, it is a despicable symbol representing shame and utter indignation. What makes it exceptional and unique is the person who is crucified on it, Jesus Christ. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul highlights this overpowering reality. “But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1, 23-24). The Crucified Christ is the sure safeguard that no matter the “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword” (Rom 8, 35), “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8, 38-39). In Christ’s Cross we find the right inspiration and stamina to patiently endure all kinds of sufferings (see 2 Cor 1, 6) “rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ” ( 1 Cor 9, 12).

In the words of the German Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “to endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.” And this allegiance to Christ, the spotless Lamb, empowers us to embrace the Cross since it is the sign of God’s recurrent victory over the power of sin and death in our lives. As the eminent eighth-century Byzantine monk, Theodore of Studios, remarkably noted: “How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness; Paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord, like a great warrior, was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby our wounds. A tree has destroyed us, a tree now brought us life”.

FR MARIO ATTARD OFM

San Gwann