Ordinary Time is suspended when an important feast falls on a Sunday. Today is one of those days, and the feast we celebrate is the Exultation of the Cross. We spend time honoring and reflecting on the most well-known symbol humanity has ever known: the cross of Jesus Christ.
A thoughtful person aware of how Jesus suffered and died can easily conclude that the cross is not just happenstance. The intersection between two boards, one horizontal and the other vertical, shows the eternal wisdom beyond the symbol. The cross by itself has a theological meaning. By its very nature, the cross is a contradiction, beams jutting out in different directions, yet connected at the crux.
The horizontal beam hovers over the earth, while the vertical surges toward the heavens. The sign of the cross is unmistakable; the reality exists between creatures steeped in the world of sin and the hope of life seeking something higher and enduring. Some might think this analysis goes too far. It would be true if all we were asked to reflect on two pieces of lumber devoid of anything else.
The “else” is Jesus nailed to it. Jesus is the only one who could make sense of the cross. Hanging and dying on the cross, the person of Jesus united the horizontal beam of a sinful humanity with the power of divinity as the vertical beam indicates.
In the fullness of time, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Born of the Virgin Mary and entering our human condition without sin, He was the only person who could again unite a sinful people with God. This was Jesus’ mission, and it came to its fruition on the cross. “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.”
There is an eternal wisdom in the cross, as the premier symbol of salvation, and it has been foretold long before Calvary. In the beginning, when sin had not yet entered the world, God allowed our first parents to eat of any tree in the garden of Eden, except for one- the tree of knowledge in the middle of the paradisaic place. Giving in to the temptations of Satan, Eve ate the fruit she was warned not to eat. Immediately, sin entered the world, and humanity would never be the same.
The People of God were also given a sign of future salvation during their journey to the promised land, instigated by their loss of trust in God and Moses. They grumbled as to why they were sent into the desert to die. By willingly breaking their bond with the Divine, the Israelites suffered from the result of their unfaithfulness.
Saraph serpents came upon the people, biting them and causing many to die. The serpents are akin to sin, which can kill people as well. After realizing their sin, the people in remorse petitioned Moses for help. God instructed Moses to mount a bronze saraph serpent on the pole. Any person bitten and gazed upon the saraph would live. Clearly, the Jewish experience was the forerunner of those who would repent and gaze on the cross of Christ, shall have life, eternally.
Jesus has told us numerous times that all Christians must pick up their crosses and follow him. The cross is not our cross alone; rather, it is the same cross that our Savior made sacred by destroying death through it. Christians hope to follow where the head has gone by conforming our lives to Jesus, who used the cross to reconcile us with God. How fitting we share such a glorious cross.
Catholics are very familiar with the image of the corpus of Jesus hanging on the cross. Our Protestant brethren have often bristled against the crucifix because they hold that the cross of Christ is all necessary for salvation. They fail to realize that through Christ, and all who follow in his path, the road to eternal life is through his and our cross we share. We are participants with Jesus by sharing Calvary in our own lives. St. Paul reminds us, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking* in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.”
We urge all Protestants to embrace the cross and be open to the complete symbol of salvation, Jesus hanging and dying on the cross. The crucifix is the best symbol and sign of our salvation, and we urge Protestants to gaze on the cross with Jesus on it.