YOU BE MY CROSS

September 14, 2010

Feast, Triumph of The Holy Cross
Tuesday of the 24th Week In Ordinary Time

Numbers 21:4-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17

The Cross:
We, Christians in general, and the Catholics in particular are a strange kind of people. We extol the cross and exalt in the triumph of the cross. We carry in our body, mind and heart signs of the cross. We were baptized with water and the Holy Spirit in the sign of the cross. Every prayer we make, we begin and end with the sign of the cross. When we pass by the Church and other Holy places we bless ourselves with the sign of the cross. Indeed, we glory in the sign of the cross.

The Sign of the Cross:

The cross is a sign. It connotes the infinite love of God for us in the self sacrifice of His beloved Son Jesus Christ. And it denotes the victory of Christ over sin and death. The cross is the sign of the Lord Jesus Christ—His obedience to the will of the Father and His fidelity of love to His people. It is the sign of the Church—her love for the Lord and her sacrificial commitment for the world. It is the sign of a Christian, a disciple—his baptismal covenant and fraternal love.

The Gaze of the Cross:

More than an arbitrary symbol, the cross is a sure source of grace, healing, love and life. “Everyone who looks up to the crucified one” will be saved. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, and everyone who looked up to the mounted snake on the pole were redeemed from the snake-bite, so also everyone who is bitten by bitterness, anger, enmity, pride, vengeance, addictions, and all forms of sin will be redeemed by the grace that flows from the crucified one. It is paradoxical that the sign of death has become the sign of life, the cross of shame and condemnation and punishment has become the sign of grace, love and redemption. Thanks to the cross of Christ, we now have a definite vision of salvation. In the moments of pain, trials, anxieties, worries, tensions, defeat, brokenness, sickness and death I just need to gaze on the Cross of Christ. It is His cross that gives meaning to my crosses. My gaze upon the Crucified one will envelop me in His grace of endurance, patience and healing.

The Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of the Cross:

The redemptive nature of the cross is manifest in its vertical and horizontal dimensions. Vertically, the cross of Christ descends from the heavens to the earth and rises from the earth to the heavens. It connects heaven and earth. The mount Calvary upon which the cross of Christ was erected rose to touch the zenith of heavens wherefrom the Father accepted the sacrifice of His Son. The cross then is a sign of connectedness between God and man, the heaven and earth. This is why every time we make the sign of the cross we are instantly connected with the abode of God, the throne of Christ and presence of the Heavenly Father. In His infinite wisdom, God devised the cross a ladder for us to ascent to heaven. On the Cross our God comes down to embrace and He lifts us up to the heaven.

On the horizontal sphere, the cross extents to the ends of the world reaching out from one corner to the other. The cross connects the hearts of every human being. As Jesus spread His hands on the Cross, He embraced every member of the human family, those in the past, present and the future, of every race, color, class, sect and religion. So, when I make the sign of the cross, I embrace in love the entire human race as my beloved family. I cannot make the sign of the cross if I nurture hatred towards any of my brothers and sisters. I am desecrating the cross, when I embrace it with no commitment of love and fidelity towards my brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Trinitarian Cross:

The sign of the Cross is the most concise beautiful prayer we have. When I mark myself with the sign of the Cross, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, I am consecrating myself to and through the Hoy Trinity. I consecrate and sanctify my intellect (mind, memories, knowledge and will) with the Love of God the Father, my body (humanity, creatureliness, physical properties) with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and my heart (feelings, emotions, relationships) with the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. By making the sign of the Cross, I am renewing my baptismal covenant with the Holy Trinity. This why the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XI has said, “By signing ourselves with the cross, we place ourselves under the protection of the cross, hold it in front of us like a shield that will guard us in all the distress of daily life and give us the courage to go on.”

Be the Cross:

The sign of the cross challenges me, not only to mark myself with the protection of the cross, to gaze on the cross, to stand at the center of the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the cross and to pray the cross in Trinitarian grace, but also to be the sign of the cross wherever I am. To become the cross is the call Jesus gives me as a disciple. Cross is a sign of love and summit of sacrificial grace. So, I am called to imitate the cross of Christ in my kenosis and self-less love. The cross is yet another symbol of “inhumanity and ungodliness”, if not it were for the Christ who is mounted on it. I become a Cross of Christ when Christ is mounted on the throne of my heart.

Thought Capsule:

"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" --Theodore of Studios