By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
Looking up to the Cross!
THE WORD IN LENT – FOURTH SUNDAY
2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21
Through the desert, God leads us to freedom! We have gone through a good part of our journey: from the desert to the waters, from the waters to the mountains, from the mountain to the cross, and today, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, we are called to reflect on the journey from the cross to the sky! Although the cross has become an indispensable symbol of salvation that God has offered us in God’s bountiful love for God’s children, let’s beware that we do not get stuck to the cross, as if it is the cross itself that saved us.
We cannot forget that fact that it is the One who was crucified on it who saved us; many have been crucified, but it is the innocent lamb of God who offered Himself for us, as an eternal sacrifice on the cross, who has saved us. That is why the cross becomes a pointer, a pointer to the One crucified on it, a pointer to what He wanted us to experience and understand, a pointer to where He wanted to take us: to His Father, to the sky, to paradise!
The Cross is a Reminder: The cross reminds us of the gratuitous gift we have received from the Lord. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, St Paul would explain in his letter to the Romans (5:8). Look at the reminder given by the first reading today – how the people repeatedly and regularly fell away from their state of being ‘people of God’. It was God who drew them to Godself. Not just once or twice, but repeatedly and unceasingly, even upto our days and our lives we see this phenomenon continue. We constantly go away from the Lord, but are reminded through varied means to come back to the Lord and sustained in many ways to remain always beloved people of God.
Every time we raise our heads and look up at the cross, it reminds us of the enormous love that has been lavished upon us at any point in our lives. It’s a reminder of the fact that we needed someone to die for us, in order that we may be saved, although we deserved not. It is reminder for us to be grateful and mindful of the mercy granted to us. It is a reminder that we are called constantly to get back to the way of righteousness, and that the moment we decide to do so, we have someone to look up to who points to the new heavens, and the new earth, the new Jerusalem to which we are called. It is not only a warning reminder, but also a happy reminder—that is why this Sunday is Laetare Sunday – we are called to rejoice in that reminder.
The Cross is a Reaching Out: There is yet another message that we are given to reflect on, looking at the Son of God lifted up on the Cross – that God is lovingly reaching out to us. Just as the bronze serpent lifted in the desert was a sign of God wanting those people to live, so is the Son of God lifted on the Cross. It is obvious: God so loved the world that God gave God’s only son, that we may have life. There is a sense of revelation here, the highest revelation of God and the nature of God, in the absolute love that was revealed in Christ, specially in the Christ crucified. That is why we needed to freeze that moment and keep it in our memories as the moment of ultimate revelation. Jesus who died on the Cross, already has risen and he shall never die again! That death on the Cross was once and for all – but we still have the crucifix everywhere… in every Church and in every place we gather. Today that is becoming an issue for many non-Christians – certainly it will become an issue, because it is the highest form of revelation of God’s love to human beings.
God is reaching out, and drawing us to Godself… when I shall be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself (Jn 12:32), Jesus would say later in the same Gospel. While God is reaching out through Jesus, Jesus is drawing us to God in the name of God – that is why the Cross: between heaven and earth, between us humanity and God – that sole mediation of salvation. The Cross is a sign of that reaching out and the drawing up!
The Cross is a Reconciliation: The Cross was not Jesus’ destination, certainly not. He declared it; those who prophesied his coming stated it; and those who proclaimed him later made it very clear – that the ultimate aim of Christ was reconciliation of everything, that every thing and every being on earth enters into that perfection communion with God, the source and summit of all. In Christ everything shall be reconciled to God – and the Cross is the rainbow of promise we are called to look up to, the sign of hope that this will ultimately happen. Our destination too, just as Christ’s, is the Sky, the paradise, the eternal presence of God, the absolute communion, which is the experience of salvation.
Looking up to the Cross, is not only to look at the cross, but to look beyond, at the promise that God has offered us! The Cross remains a reminder of that promise and our call to grow worthy of that promise. The Cross is a continuous recalling of the God who is reaching out to us that we may be reconciled in God and enjoy that eternal and inexplicable bliss, the joy of salvation!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He holds doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.