Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 14, 2008 - The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
[Numbers 21:4B-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17]Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
I have just finished reading an account of the ministry of the Sisters of Loretto in China, which took place in the first half of the twentieth century. I know that they were not the only missionaries in China at that time, and that their sufferings were probably typical of all who labored in those missions, but I was inspired by what I read. I could not imagine myself enduring that they endured. It is no wonder that there has been a tradition of giving a "mission cross" to those who go to missions outside the country. Perhaps that is done for those who come to this country as missionaries? I mention this because the celebration of this feast concerns not the crucifixion, i.e. the execution of Jesus like a terrible criminal (that's Good Friday), but the instrument of the execution. Jesus, himself, invites us to take up our OWN cross and follow after him. Is it not strange that the universal symbol of Christianity is an instrument of capital punishment? The form of death was ignominious and a scandal to many. What had Jesus done to deserve the worst kind of death? How could such a person be a "messiah?" Note that St. Paul uses the hymn with the words: EVEN death on a cross! The heroic sufferings of those sisters as well as the heroic suffering of people whom we may know personally testifies to an interesting thing: the "taking up" of the cross may be an event in which that which is noblest in a person may be revealed in the most ugly of fates! We decorate our churches and homes with beautiful crosses but we musn't forget what those crosses ultimately signify - terrible suffering on behalf of others. Suffering for the sake of suffering is ot what exalts that symbol. It is the love that motivates that suffering which gives the cross its true meaning. There is no other reason for taking it up! AMEN
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