“We should glory in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ”
In the Book of the Prophet Isaiah we read this passage: “As the crowds were appalled on seeing Him, so disfigured did He look that He seemed no longer human, so will the crowds be astonished at Him and kings stand speechless before Him, for they shall see something never told and witness something never heard before.”
We hear much of crowds in the story of the Passion—crowds baying for the blood of Christ, crowds screaming “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.” The crowds, in the only poll or Synodal way recorded in the Scriptures, call for the release of a murderer, and condemn the Prince of Peace. Beware of crowds, beware of polls, and popular opinion—it might get a good man killed or cancelled and an imposter or a false doctrine celebrated.
The late and much missed philosopher Sir Roger Scruton once wrote that you can really only understand the Easter story if you have been, as he said, “hounded by the mob.” He had experienced that mob himself, several times in his life. If we are to receive forgiveness and redemption, we must accept the truth that, as Scruton wrote, we are members “of this hate-filled mob.” However, the transformative and hope-filled message of Good Friday is that our hate can be “turned to pity, and our pity to love.”
On Good Friday, we are in the very center of what the Church calls the Paschal Mystery, the life, saving death, and resurrection of Jesus. Catholic Christians believe that this is what we enter in a real and sacramental way every time we go to Holy Mass: we are truly and mystically at both Calvary and the Resurrection. If we understand this, our life of faith becomes extraordinarily strong, enough to sustain us through any suffering or persecution, which is the true lesson of the martyrs throughout the centuries.
It is also formative: we are changed first by our encounter with the living Christ, He who is the Victor over death. Through our participation in what the Orthodox call the “sacred mysteries,” we are converted and enabled, although sinners, to live a Christian life. Many people struggle because they think Christianity is first about following the moral law. In fact, it is first about worship and faith, which enables us, through the constant practice of conversion or repentance, to “put on the Lord Jesus,” as Paul says, to live like Him and thus live the commandments.
The mystery of the Cross is at the center of these sacred days and at heart of the Christian life. The Cross is, in the very truest sense of the word, awesome and awe inspiring. There is a tendency, and it is not entirely wrong, to grow sorrowful during the celebration of the Lord’s Passion. We must be careful, however, that those tears are of repentance and not sentimentality; sentimental tears would condemn Christ to the Cross once again.
St. Paul and many of the early Church Fathers often focused on a different aspect of the Cross: Its glory. Jesus says in St. John’s Gospel, “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified … and what should I say … save Me from this hour? No, it was for this purpose I have come to this hour.” That passage could be the focus of all our meditation on this holy day. The Crucifixion, the dreadful moment, the death of God the Son, is the moment of glory. St. Leo the Great could write: “O wonderful power of the Cross! O indescribable glory of the Passion! There is the tribunal of the Lord, and the judgment of the world, and the power of the Crucified One.”
Unpack those three things that St. Leo says are the “glory of the Passion.” First, it is the tribunal of the Lord. Every week in the creed, we say we believe we will be judged at the tribunal of the Lord: for our whole life, for our part in the mob, for our lies, deceit, immorality, lack of courage and conviction. Will there be enough evidence to convict us of being Christians? If we are saved by the Cross there is our hope and glory. It is also the “judgment of the world.” All those in authority will receive judgment: kings indeed will stand speechless. What will they say before the Great Judge who rules from the Cross? “Kyrie eleison, Lord, have mercy.” In the Cross is the only hope of salvation. Lastly, says Leo, it is the “power of the Crucified One.” This is what we must understand and believe as if our very lives depended on it, because they do.
The theologian Tom Wright says that because of the Cross all the powers of the universe, the principalities, and powers have been defeated. That is the Gospel. The Good News is a stumbling block for unbelievers and for all power—even death itself. For the believer, all is reconciled through the Cross, but it is critical for us to remember, as Wright says, that this is not the world we can “see with the naked eye.” Just as the first disciples and believers saw sickness, torture, ridicule, and death, we are not removed from the suffering of the world. But if we see the world with the eyes of faith and through the Cross we will be rescued and delivered.
Redemption, in the case of a slave, meant buying his freedom. The Gospel message, which spread throughout the known world from Easter Sunday on, is that our old life is crucified on the Cross and we as Christians begin anew. This message is not preached when the Church focuses on the world of politics, or climate change, or any other cause that is not the Gospel. The Gospel we must preach is the saving power of the Cross. But we are not slaves; we are already free.
Christianity converted the world through the power of the Cross. If we understand this, we can begin to comprehend what Paul means when he speaks of “glorying in the Cross” of Christ. It is impossible without faith. However, with faith it is truly a life-changing power, the power to live through suffering and the power to endure persecution. It is the power that all the martyrs have believed in, from the first martyr St. Stephen to the Nigerian Christian who is being killed today simply because he or she is Christian. This is the power to fight the principalities and demonic forces of the day, and the power to fight the mob who try to drown out the quiet and civilizing voice of Christianity. When the world discovers its emptiness, the power of the Gospel which, when the world has finally discovered its emptiness, will be its only liberation. This is the power even to pass over from death to life. “So will the crowds be astonished at Him, and kings stand speechless before Him, for they shall see something never told and witness something never heard before.”
The Glory of the Cross
“La Crucifixión” (between 1509 and 1519), a 123 x 169 cm oil on panel by Juan de Flandes (1450–1519), located in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.
“We should glory in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ”
In the Book of the Prophet Isaiah we read this passage: “As the crowds were appalled on seeing Him, so disfigured did He look that He seemed no longer human, so will the crowds be astonished at Him and kings stand speechless before Him, for they shall see something never told and witness something never heard before.”
We hear much of crowds in the story of the Passion—crowds baying for the blood of Christ, crowds screaming “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.” The crowds, in the only poll or Synodal way recorded in the Scriptures, call for the release of a murderer, and condemn the Prince of Peace. Beware of crowds, beware of polls, and popular opinion—it might get a good man killed or cancelled and an imposter or a false doctrine celebrated.
The late and much missed philosopher Sir Roger Scruton once wrote that you can really only understand the Easter story if you have been, as he said, “hounded by the mob.” He had experienced that mob himself, several times in his life. If we are to receive forgiveness and redemption, we must accept the truth that, as Scruton wrote, we are members “of this hate-filled mob.” However, the transformative and hope-filled message of Good Friday is that our hate can be “turned to pity, and our pity to love.”
On Good Friday, we are in the very center of what the Church calls the Paschal Mystery, the life, saving death, and resurrection of Jesus. Catholic Christians believe that this is what we enter in a real and sacramental way every time we go to Holy Mass: we are truly and mystically at both Calvary and the Resurrection. If we understand this, our life of faith becomes extraordinarily strong, enough to sustain us through any suffering or persecution, which is the true lesson of the martyrs throughout the centuries.
It is also formative: we are changed first by our encounter with the living Christ, He who is the Victor over death. Through our participation in what the Orthodox call the “sacred mysteries,” we are converted and enabled, although sinners, to live a Christian life. Many people struggle because they think Christianity is first about following the moral law. In fact, it is first about worship and faith, which enables us, through the constant practice of conversion or repentance, to “put on the Lord Jesus,” as Paul says, to live like Him and thus live the commandments.
The mystery of the Cross is at the center of these sacred days and at heart of the Christian life. The Cross is, in the very truest sense of the word, awesome and awe inspiring. There is a tendency, and it is not entirely wrong, to grow sorrowful during the celebration of the Lord’s Passion. We must be careful, however, that those tears are of repentance and not sentimentality; sentimental tears would condemn Christ to the Cross once again.
St. Paul and many of the early Church Fathers often focused on a different aspect of the Cross: Its glory. Jesus says in St. John’s Gospel, “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified … and what should I say … save Me from this hour? No, it was for this purpose I have come to this hour.” That passage could be the focus of all our meditation on this holy day. The Crucifixion, the dreadful moment, the death of God the Son, is the moment of glory. St. Leo the Great could write: “O wonderful power of the Cross! O indescribable glory of the Passion! There is the tribunal of the Lord, and the judgment of the world, and the power of the Crucified One.”
Unpack those three things that St. Leo says are the “glory of the Passion.” First, it is the tribunal of the Lord. Every week in the creed, we say we believe we will be judged at the tribunal of the Lord: for our whole life, for our part in the mob, for our lies, deceit, immorality, lack of courage and conviction. Will there be enough evidence to convict us of being Christians? If we are saved by the Cross there is our hope and glory. It is also the “judgment of the world.” All those in authority will receive judgment: kings indeed will stand speechless. What will they say before the Great Judge who rules from the Cross? “Kyrie eleison, Lord, have mercy.” In the Cross is the only hope of salvation. Lastly, says Leo, it is the “power of the Crucified One.” This is what we must understand and believe as if our very lives depended on it, because they do.
The theologian Tom Wright says that because of the Cross all the powers of the universe, the principalities, and powers have been defeated. That is the Gospel. The Good News is a stumbling block for unbelievers and for all power—even death itself. For the believer, all is reconciled through the Cross, but it is critical for us to remember, as Wright says, that this is not the world we can “see with the naked eye.” Just as the first disciples and believers saw sickness, torture, ridicule, and death, we are not removed from the suffering of the world. But if we see the world with the eyes of faith and through the Cross we will be rescued and delivered.
Redemption, in the case of a slave, meant buying his freedom. The Gospel message, which spread throughout the known world from Easter Sunday on, is that our old life is crucified on the Cross and we as Christians begin anew. This message is not preached when the Church focuses on the world of politics, or climate change, or any other cause that is not the Gospel. The Gospel we must preach is the saving power of the Cross. But we are not slaves; we are already free.
Christianity converted the world through the power of the Cross. If we understand this, we can begin to comprehend what Paul means when he speaks of “glorying in the Cross” of Christ. It is impossible without faith. However, with faith it is truly a life-changing power, the power to live through suffering and the power to endure persecution. It is the power that all the martyrs have believed in, from the first martyr St. Stephen to the Nigerian Christian who is being killed today simply because he or she is Christian. This is the power to fight the principalities and demonic forces of the day, and the power to fight the mob who try to drown out the quiet and civilizing voice of Christianity. When the world discovers its emptiness, the power of the Gospel which, when the world has finally discovered its emptiness, will be its only liberation. This is the power even to pass over from death to life. “So will the crowds be astonished at Him, and kings stand speechless before Him, for they shall see something never told and witness something never heard before.”
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