PARADOXICAL

From Word Among Us, Sept. 2004

Today’s feast has a long history in the church. St. Helena’s discovery of the true cross was first celebrated on September 14 in A.D. 365. It was held in the church that Helena’s son, the Roman emperor Constantine, built over the site of Golgotha and the tomb of Jesus. The observance of this event spread quickly among Christians throughout the world, and in the seventh century this feast – coupled with another commemorating the restoration of the relic of the cross which had been seized by the Persians – was named the Feast of the Triumph, or Exaltation, of the Cross in the Roman calendar.

Though the ancient world shuddered at the thought of death by crucifixion – a horrific and shameful form of execution – Christians honor the cross as both the sign of Jesus’ suffering and the trophy of his victory over Satan, sin, and death. We revere the cross because through it we have come to know Jesus’ great love for us, and through the wounds that it inflicted, we have been saved and healed. As Rupert of Deutz, a twelfth-century Benedictine abbot, movingly proclaimed:

“We venerate the cross as safeguard of faith, as the strengthening of hope, and the throne of love. It is the sign of mercy, the proof of forgiveness, the vehicle of grace, and the banner of peace. We venerate the cross because it has broken down our pride, shattered our envy, redeemed our sin, and atoned for our punishment.

“The cross of Christ is the door to heaven, the key to paradise, the downfall of the devil, the uplifting of mankind, the consolation of our imprisonment, the prize for our freedom… Tyrants are convicted by the cross and the mighty ones defeated. It lifts up the miserable and honors the poor. The cross is the end of darkness, the spreading light, the flight of death, the ship of life and the kingdom of salvation.

“Whatever we accomplish for God, whatever we succeed and hope for, is the fruit of our veneration of the cross. By the cross Christ draws everything him. It is the kingdom of the Father, the scepter of the Son, and the seal of the Holy Spirit, a witness to the total Trinity.”

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“We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”

posted by Resty Odon  # 4:59 PM