The cross, a new look
The peak of summer ushers in Holy Week. It also focuses on the word bear: Bear the heat, bear the discomfort and bear the inconvenience that seems to be in line with the season’s call for abstinence and sacrifice.
Every time we glance at the cross or wear it around our neck, the symbols that come to mind are of suffering, of deep pain and sorrow. Just picture the Virgin Mary weeping with a heart shattered into pieces at the foot of the cross at witnessing her Son’s agony: The shedding of blood, the hits and lashings on His body, the nasty wounds from the crown of thorns, including the mockery and humiliation from His fellow Jews.
Father Domie Guzman of the Society of St. Paul’s talked about the cross, drawing attention to the eternal messages of the cross according to soon-to-be-canonized Pope John Paul II:
1) The cross symbolizes God the Father as the Master Planner. When God promised to send a Redeemer to save Adam and Eve and the whole of humankind, He did not mean just any holy prophet but His own Son. The cross foreshadowed the coming of Jesus.
Throughout the history of man, God sent prophets to inform and keep people grounded. They were like His advance party. Prophets like Elijah, Moses, Jonah, and others described the coming of the Messiah, His public ministry, His passion, and inevitable death by hanging on the cross.
When Jesus finally came, he knew His mission. He knew the day would come when he would have to die. He had no way of dodging it or escaping from it. Jesus also prepared His disciples. He talked to them about the future events that would unfold for Him, as well as for them.
Once, Jesus asked His disciples who is the Messiah? “A Messiah must be sacrificed, will suffer, and will die.â€
The Romans regarded the cross as a symbol of punishment, of shame and defeat. Jesus elevated the cross as a symbol of hope. Dying on the cross was not the end. His Father allowed Him to suffer in order to bring Him to the next step: His resurrection. His resurrection became a concrete proof that dying is not the end of life but a mere transition to a new life, without end.
Suffering (or trials) as we experience it, becomes a mere segment of a whole lifetime story. (After my suffering, God has a greater plan for me.)
2) The cross becomes Jesus’ way of being our Saviour. How? Nothing is impossible to God and He could have made our salvation a lot simpler, but God was trying to show something deeper in our lives. Whenever we sin, it separates us from God. Sin kills a relationship; it becomes a symbol of betrayal.
In spite of this great act of deception, God loved us so much that He still chose to save us. He cannot save us without a physical body. And that’s why Jesus had to be born mortal, like man. Being human enabled Jesus to maintain a relationship with us, to understand us and share our feelings, keeping that sense of involvement, of empathy.
On the cross, he died like a man. He didn’t lose his connection with us and that enabled Him to take our place, (dying in our stead) and therefore, paying our ransom. We are the very same people who got the utmost credit for His sacrifice and His death. In life insurance lingo, you and I became His sole beneficiaries.
3) The cross becomes the symbol of God’s ultimate friendship. What if Adam and Eve stayed faithful and did not commit the sin of pride and disobedience, would Jesus have come anyway?
Yes! Jesus would still have come but would have had a different mission. This time, not to pay ransom, but be the ultimate symbol of friendship, of what a real friend is. A real friend as described in John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.â€
Jesus becomes the ultimate sign and proof of God’s friendship that lasts beyond death.
Master Planner, Saviour, True and Everlasting Friendship. These are the eternal symbols of the cross. Look at it or wear it with no more sadness but with triumph and gratitude. We go past the sufferings because Jesus has freed us.
Now, we live.
Live.
