Why Cross?

The Exultation of the Cross

September 14, 2014

John 3:14-17

“…so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15).”

Cross has always been associated with us Christians. Yet, why does it has to be a cross? Looking into the real meaning of the cross, it was a means of cruel torture and horrible humiliation. This was a capital punishment reserved for a non-Roman who rebelled against the authority of the empire. Just try to imagine the suffering it causes: rusty and giant nails will thrust your hands and feet; your naked body is hanging on the wood, being exposed to day’s sizzling heat and freezing wind of the night; slowly your body is losing blood, water and air, while enduring terrible hunger and thirst. You are lucky if you die immediately, but for some, the hell lasts for couple of days. Cross becomes a perfect symbol of human brutal attitude and injustice.

Yet, today is a different generation. Many of us proudly wear around our necks. It marks every Church and Christian edifice. After two thousand years, the cross is stripped of its horror and people has lost sight of its deepest reality it bears. While we, Catholics, retain the corpus (Jesus’ body), our Protestant brothers would take away Jesus from the cross. Their reason is logical: Jesus has risen and He is no longer there. Also it appears that the Catholics is perpetuating the suffering of Christ. Then, cross is gradually emptied of its meaning.

Today, we honor the cross, and perhaps this is a high time to ask ourselves why we need to respect the cross and place it in the center of our life. I have no intention to draw back the cruelty of the cross, neither to crucify Jesus once again, but we may discover the real beauty of the Holy Cross. Firstly, cross cannot be separated from Christ. Late Bishop Fulton Sheen, one of the first clergy who used mass media to evangelize, reminded us that Jesus without cross is a distant God, and cross without Jesus is mere sign of human atrocity. The same sentiment belongs to the early Christians. In first Pentecost, St. Peter preached Jesus that was crucified (cf. Acts 4:10) and in his letter, St. Paul reminded us that we preach only Christ and Him crucified (cf. 1 Cor 1:22). Analyzing the four Gospels, we realize that not all the Evangelists wrote on the nativity story (only Matthew and Luke), but the four holy authors agreed to place the Crucifixion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus as the center of their writings. We note also that though the cross appear in all the Gospels, the sacred writers had no keenness on the bloody details, but focus on Jesus who loved us to the end. Since then, the word “kerygma” refers to the core of Christian preaching which is the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Secondly, cross cannot be separated from the Christians. Jesus demands his disciples to carry their daily cross (Luk 9:23). Following Jesus is not an easy path. It is way of the cross. To forgive our enemies is extremely difficult, but Jesus wants us to love them! To help ourselves is sometimes backbreaking, yet Jesus asks us to also give your hands to people poorer than us.

We exult the cross, not because we adore the horror it brings, but because God is there. Cross pushes us to the limit and presses us on in loving. Only in love, we find our salvation. As St. John of the Cross would say that at the twilight of our life, we will be judged by how we love. Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, OP, an American microbiologist and ethicist, would propose that in the end of our life, Jesus will ask us the very question He addressed to Peter, “Do you love me?” and we only answer this after we carry our cross to the end.

Brother Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP