People of every culture have looked for ways to connect our world with the spiritual realm. In the course of that search, men and women have created symbols that speak to the desired connection. A few examples stand out. Egyptians have their obelisks, Native Americans have their totem poles, and the Jewish Scriptures introduced Jacob’s ladder. We Christians also have a symbol that we celebrate every year on September 14; namely, the cross.
Almost all Catholic homes have a crucifix hanging on a wall in the house. Some homes have a crucifix in every room. Every Catholic Church includes a crucifix, usually hanging above the altar of sacrifice, reminding us that by his cross, Jesus established a permanent link between this life and the next. The cross is our gate through which we must pass if we wish to find a place in God’s realm. The cross is the narrow gate of which Jesus speaks in responding to the question of how many will be saved.
One of the most familiar images of St. Francis of Assisi depicts him kneeling at the foot of the cross embracing the feet of Jesus. One of his biographers tells of how Francis heard a voice as he knelt before a cross in the little church of San Damiano, instructing him to “rebuild my church which is falling into ruins.” The first biographer of St. Francis, Brother Thomas of Celano, tells us that St. Francis and St. Clare spent every afternoon between noon and 3:00 PM meditating on the passion and death of Jesus. There are those who say that devotion to the passion of Jesus was a direct result of St. Francis’ intense desire to follow Jesus Christ by carrying his own cross.
In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul speaks of the brand marks of Jesus Christ: “Are you people in Galatia mad? Has someone put a spell on you, in spite of the plain explanation you have had of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ? Let me ask you one question: was it because you practiced the Law that you received the Spirit, or because you believed what was preached to you?. . . As for me, the only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. It does not matter if a person is circumcised or not; what matters is for him to become an altogether new creature” (Galatians 3:1-2; 6:14-15).
Reading the entire Letter to the Galatians would be time well spent today as it lays out in several different passages the benefits we have won through the cross. As you may have already heard me say before, St. Paul’s efforts to create Christian communities among the Gentiles were usually followed by a group of Jewish Christians trying to undo his work by insisting that Gentiles become Jews before they could be considered Christians. This involved circumcision of the males. St. Paul is very clear that this “mark in the flesh” has been supplanted by the marks of the nails in the flesh of Jesus. Through the blood shed through these wounds, Jesus has granted us access to the Father and to God’s realm.
So we hold up this instrument of torture as the connection between our world and God’s realm. Those of us who suffer with chronic illness or disability know the daily struggle of carrying the cross. However, rather than looking upon it as a curse, we realize that our illnesses and our disabilities make it possible for us to find a bond in Jesus, our Savior. With St. Paul we can boast about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ as we struggle to carry our own cross with patience and a spirit of obedience.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator