Daily Retreat 09/14/06
2006 Sep 14 Thu: EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS F
Nm 21: 4b-9/ Ps 77(78): 1bc-2. 34-35. 36-37. 38/ Phil 2: 6-11/ Jn 3: 13-17
From today’s readings: “Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.... Do not forget the works of the Lord!... Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.... Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”
The Triumph of the Cross
The Cross of Christ is such a paradox - the most barbarian instrument of torture and suffering, now converted into the Savior’s sign of hope, comfort, and ultimate victory. God, who in His omnipotence could have saved us in any number of ways, chose, in His wisdom, to unfurl His banner of victorious love in the most least likely locale. What does it all mean?
In the darkest hour, engulfed in deepest despair, amidst coldest cruelty and vilest villainy, surrounded even by heartless hearts, in such situations from which one would concede God Himself had been completely banished - there, even there, and especially there, the Cross of Christ alone can stand again triumphant, but only when those now charged with carrying a cross dare to raise it anew as the banner of God’s victorious love!
Nm 21: 4b-9/ Ps 77(78): 1bc-2. 34-35. 36-37. 38/ Phil 2: 6-11/ Jn 3: 13-17
From today’s readings: “Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.... Do not forget the works of the Lord!... Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.... Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”
The Triumph of the Cross
The Cross of Christ is such a paradox - the most barbarian instrument of torture and suffering, now converted into the Savior’s sign of hope, comfort, and ultimate victory. God, who in His omnipotence could have saved us in any number of ways, chose, in His wisdom, to unfurl His banner of victorious love in the most least likely locale. What does it all mean?
In the darkest hour, engulfed in deepest despair, amidst coldest cruelty and vilest villainy, surrounded even by heartless hearts, in such situations from which one would concede God Himself had been completely banished - there, even there, and especially there, the Cross of Christ alone can stand again triumphant, but only when those now charged with carrying a cross dare to raise it anew as the banner of God’s victorious love!
posted by FrPitstick | 9/13/2006
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