{"id":25627,"date":"2010-06-09T10:10:54","date_gmt":"2010-06-09T14:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/06\/the-cross-offers-unlimited-hop\/"},"modified":"2010-06-09T10:10:54","modified_gmt":"2010-06-09T14:10:54","slug":"the-cross-offers-unlimited-hop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/06\/the-cross-offers-unlimited-hop\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cross offers unlimited hope, Pope teaches"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Cross<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pope’s homily on the role of the Cross in our theology was a good reminder of who are as a people of faith: merciful, loving, and hope-filled. Sin and death don’t have the last word in life. It is sad that we don’t remember this more often, clergy and laity alike. This homily made me reflect back on an experience I had a few weeks back when I was told a priest in this particular parish preached that Catholics are “Easter people” and not a “Good Friday people.” Sorely misguided. On June 5<\/i>th<\/i><\/span><\/font> in Cyprus Pope Benedict celebrated the Votive Mass of the Holy Cross (praying
\nthe various votive Masses is a good and noble tradition when there is no
\nspecific liturgical memorial that particular day) when he acknowledged the work of
\ndevoted priests, brothers, sisters catechists and the lay movements in preaching and teaching the Truth. In the
\nface of difficult and sometimes evil situations the Pope encouraged his
\ncongregation (and us) to base their (our) lives on the Cross. For Christians, the cross is not
\na failure but the symbol –the reality– of mercy, forgiveness, faith, hope and joy. And it is
\nthe goal of priests and religious to conform their lives to their Cross because
\nit is at the foot of the Cross that we know the full power of the Trinity’s
\nlove for us. Plus, the Pope reminds us that we are not the center of the faith, Christ is: it is His wisdom and salvation we communicate to others, not our own.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Here are excerpts from the Pope’s homily:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Beguiled by the serpent, Adam had foresaken his filial trust in
\nGod and sinned by biting into the fruit of the one tree in the garden that was
\nforbidden to him. In consequence of that sin, suffering and death came into the
\nworld. The tragic effects of sin, suffering and death were all too evident in
\nthe history of Adam’s descendants. We see this in our first reading today, with
\nits echoes of the Fall and its prefiguring of Christ’s redemption.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a
\npunishment for their sin, the people of Israel, languishing in the desert, were
\nbitten by serpents and could only be saved from death by looking upon the
\nemblem that Moses raised up, foreshadowing the Cross that would put an end to
\nsin and death once and for all. We see clearly that man cannot save himself
\nfrom the consequences of his sin. He cannot save himself from death<\/b>. Only God
\ncan release him from his moral and physical enslavement. And because he loved
\nthe world so much, he sent his only-begotten Son, not to condemn the world – as
\njustice seemed to demand – but so that through him the world might be saved. God’s
\nonly-begotten Son had to be lifted up just as Moses lifted up the serpent in
\nthe desert, so that all who looked upon him with faith might have life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Descent<\/a><\/p>\n

The
\nwood of the Cross became the vehicle for our redemption<\/b>, just as the tree from
\nwhich it was fashioned had occasioned the Fall of our first parents. Suffering
\nand death, which had been a consequence of sin, were to become the very means
\nby which sin was vanquished<\/b>. The innocent Lamb was slain on the altar of the
\nCross, and yet from the immolation of the victim new life burst forth: the
\npower of evil was destroyed by the power of self-sacrificing love.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cross,
\nthen, is something far greater and more mysterious than it at first appears. It
\nis indeed an instrument of torture, suffering and defeat, but at the same time
\nit expresses the complete transformation, the definitive reversal of these
\nevils: that is what makes it the most eloquent symbol of hope that the world
\nhas ever seen. It speaks to all who suffer – the oppressed, the sick, the poor,
\nthe outcast, the victims of violence – and it offers them hope that God can
\ntransform their suffering into joy, their isolation into communion, their death
\ninto life. It offers unlimited hope<\/b> to our fallen world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cross<\/a><\/p>\n

That is why the world
\nneeds the Cross. The Cross is not just a private symbol of devotion, it is not
\njust a badge of membership of a certain group within society, and in its
\ndeepest meaning it has nothing to do with the imposition of a creed or a
\nphilosophy by force.<\/b> It speaks of hope, it speaks of love, it speaks of the
\nvictory of non-violence over oppression, it speaks of God raising up the lowly,
\nempowering the weak, conquering division, and overcoming hatred with love. A
\nworld without the Cross would be a world without hope, a world in which torture
\nand brutality would go unchecked, the weak would be exploited and greed would
\nhave the final word. Man’s inhumanity to man would be manifested in ever more
\nhorrific ways, and there would be no end to the vicious cycle of violence. Only
\nthe Cross puts an end to it<\/b>. While no earthly power can save us from the
\nconsequences of our sins, and no earthly power can defeat injustice at its
\nsource, nevertheless the saving intervention of our loving God has transformed
\nthe reality of sin and death into its opposite. That is what we celebrate when
\nwe glory in the Cross of our Redeemer. Rightly does Saint Andrew of Crete
\ndescribe the Cross as “more noble, more precious than anything on earth […] for
\nin it and through it and for it all the riches of our salvation were stored
\naway and restored to us” (Oratio X; PG 97, 1018-1019).<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear brother priests,
\ndear religious, dear catechists, the message of the Cross has been entrusted to
\nus, so that we can offer hope to the world. When we proclaim Christ crucified
\nwe are proclaiming not ourselves, but him. We are not<\/span> offering our own wisdom
\nto the world, nor are we claiming any merit of our own, but<\/span> we are acting as
\nchannels for his<\/span> wisdom, his<\/span> love, his<\/span> saving merits<\/b>. We know that we are
\nmerely earthenware vessels, and yet, astonishingly, we have been chosen to be
\nheralds of the saving truth that the world needs to hear. Let us never cease to
\nmarvel at the extraordinary grace that has been given to us, let us never cease
\nto acknowledge our unworthiness, but at the same time let us always strive to
\nbecome less unworthy of our noble calling, lest through our faults and failings
\nwe weaken the credibility of our witness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"B16<\/a><\/p>\n

In this Year for Priests, let me
\naddress a special word to the priests present today, and to those who are
\npreparing for ordination. Reflect on the words spoken to a newly ordained
\npriest as the Bishop presents him with the chalice and paten: “Understand what
\nyou do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the
\nLord’s Cross”. As we proclaim the Cross of Christ, let us always strive to
\nimitate the selfless love of the one who offered himself for us on the altar of
\nthe Cross, the one who is both priest and victim, the one in whose person we
\nspeak and act when we exercise the ministry that we have received<\/span>. As we
\nreflect on our shortcomings, individually and collectively, let us humbly
\nacknowledge<\/span> that we have merited the punishment that he, the innocent Lamb,
\nsuffered on our behalf.<\/i> And if, in accordance with what we have deserved, we
\nshould have some share in Christ’s sufferings, let us rejoice because we will
\nenjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch the YouTube clip<\/a> on the teaching of Pope Benedict on the Cross<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pope’s homily on the role of the Cross in our theology was a good reminder of who are as a people of faith: merciful, loving, and hope-filled. Sin and death don’t have the last word in life. It is sad that we don’t remember this more often, clergy and laity alike. This homily made … Continue reading The Cross offers unlimited hope, Pope teaches<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[1757,32081],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}