The Message of the Cross

Yesterday was my second anniversary as a Catholic! This is what it's all about!

Holy Week began on Sunday with Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday, and the reading of the narrative of Christ's Passion (from Mark's Gospel). And so we enter the greatest week of the year, culminating in the greatest Feast of the Year!

This is what our faith is built around: The Cross of Christ. His death for us shows us His great love for us as it redeems us from our sins and forgives us! Through that wonderful Cross, we have been made sons and daughters of God! The Cross is the source of joy!

Let that sink in. Jesus' suffering and death saves us from our sin. So often, I think, we treat Good Friday as a terrible day as we hasten on to the "happy ending" of Easter Sunday. I was reminded of this fact last Sunday when a small boy asked Fr. Watters, "Why do we call Good Friday 'good' if that's when Jesus died?" Fr. Watters wisely responded, "Because it's the best day of the year!"

Truly, it is! If there were no Good Friday, there could be no Easter Sunday. If there were no Good Friday, we all would still be dead in our sins. If there were no Good Friday, we would not know of God's incredible love for us! And yet, Good Friday honours and remembers the most painful, tragic event that has ever occured--and we indeed call it "Good."

That is why St. Paul wrote, "The message of the cross is folly to those who are on the way to ruin, but for those of us who are on the road to salvation it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). A few verses later, he says, "I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of Him as the crucified Christ." Jesus Himself told us that His glory was in the Cross! In fact, it was the Cross that would draw all people to Him. In John's Gospel, Jesus says, "'Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to Myself'" (12:31-32). John comments on this saying, "By these words He indicated the kind of death He would die" (v. 33).

For Jesus, the Cross was His Glory, His Power. When St. John had his vision, in Revelation, he sees Jesus as "a Lamb standing that seemed to have been sacrificed" (Rev. 5:6), and to this Lamb, all the choirs of Heaven bow down and sing

You are worthy...
because You were sacrificed, and with Your blood
You bought people for God
of every race, language, people and nation
and made them a line of kings and priests for God,
to rule the world (Rev. 6:9,10).

In the Crucifixion is joy; in the Crucifixion is victory; in the Crucifixion is redemption. This is why, in every Church, there is a Crucifix--to remind us of the Love and of the Victory in the Cross. "...You have had a clear picture of Jesus Christ crucified, right in front of your eyes..." (Galatians 3:1).

Many years ago in New York, a Gang was passing by St. Patrick's Cathedral. The gang members each dared each other to mock religion and the Church by going into the Cathedral and making a mock confession. One of the guys took the dare, and entered the church. He went into the confessional and began listing off to the priest all the most horrible and shocking sins that he could think of, hoping to embarrass the priest. But behind the screen sat a wise old Cardinal, who prayed to Jesus for wisdom.

When the gang member finished, the Cardinal said to him, "For a confession to be complete and valid, you must do a penance. Here is the penance I am giving you. Over at the back of the Church there is a small chapel, with a life-sized Crucifix inside. I want you to kneel before that Crucifix, look into the face of Jesus, and say to Him ten times, 'Jesus, You died for me, and I don't care.'"

The youth, figuring he'd already gone this far, and might as well go all the way, entered the chapel, knelt before the Crucifix, and began his penance:

"Jesus, You died for me, and I don't care.
Jesus, You died for me, and I don't care.
Jesus, You died for me..."

There, before the Crucifix, as the gang member stared into the face of the One who loved him so much that He suffered and died for him, he could not finish his penance. The grace of Christ came into his life and he had a conversion experience. He got up, went back to the confessional, and made a good confession. Years later, that same man became a priest.

That is the power of the Cross: freedom, peace, and joy. No matter where you've been or what you've done, Christ's hands are stretched out in love for you.

God bless.