The Veneration of the Cross

Fr James McTavish FMVD

Transformation in Love

Today we celebrate the veneration of the cross. We sing the acclaim “Behold the wood of the cross on which is hung our salvation”. The first reading proclaims “See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted. Even as many were amazed at him so marred was his look beyond human semblance and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man so shall he startle many nations, because of him kings shall stand speechless”. (Is 52,13-15). What is happening? What is going on this day? Why do we venerate the cross when at first glance it seems a failure and an object of scorn? In many countries of today the crucifix is being banned. In Japan many cannot understand what this man is doing on a cross, it seems so shameful.

We have to dialogue with Jesus, ask him. Lord what are you doing there on the cross? Jesus will tell us “Look, I am making everything new”. Jesus is renewing the world with his love. What helps me to understand the love behind the cross is remembering a photograph of my father. In it he is holding my brother and I in his outstretched arms after our baptism. For me it is a picture of selfless love, a young man living as a father, a life of sacrifice and self giving – in short a life of tremendous love which I saw on the face of my smiling father. When we gaze at Jesus on the cross we notice the pain and suffering but we must also notice the great love. Many Saints such as St Francis Xavier even prayed with a crucified Christ who was smiling.

It is of Christ carrying his cross that Pilate says “Here is the man” – he is the model we are called to follow, his is the love we are called to imitate. A love that is crucified. A love that is capable to put to death selfishness. A love that is capable to put to death laziness to reach out to others. Do you know when I first experienced this love in my life I was working in Sydney, Australia. I was a surgeon working hard but when I experienced the love of Christ, I realized there is no greater love than this, for a person to give up his life for me. When I tasted this love I wanted more. It started to change me. I wanted to make this love my own. It is like Pope John Paul II stated in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, the Redeemer of man “Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it.” (RH 10). When I left Australia to enter Verbum Dei I had a ‘despedida’. The theme was “My life is Christ”. I was not totally sure what it meant at first but I realized that this is what I want for my life, to be like Christ. That is what fascinated me, that Jesus wanted to walk around the streets of Sydney in my life, to speak to others through my mouth, to touch their lives them with my very hands.

That was more than 10 years ago. I see that his love has transformed me, it has made me a new person. I never ever shared about my faith in public ever when I lived in the UK but now I find it difficult to keep quiet! I want to announce and dedicate my whole life to shouting to the world of today that only the love of Christ satisfies us.

Jesus asks us to imitate his crucified love. To put to death in us all that stops us loving and giving our lives. Our shyness, our laziness, our cynicisms. Put it all to death with Christ on his cross. May we be able to crucify all that stops us loving. We need a more mature love. Sometimes I find my love very immature. When I was 5 if I didn’t like someone they could not come to my birthday party. But if I liked them, well they can come to my party. This is fine when we are 5 but now at 25, 35, 45 our love needs to be more mature. Sometimes my love is still the same. I sent a text to someone saying respond a.s.a.p. – as soon as possible. They ignored it. I noticed that same reaction “Right, you are not coming to my birthday party!” It is time to grow up.

Jesus goes to the cross to teach us how to love. Not any old love will change the world but a crucified love can make all things new. Jesus is not just looking for adorers or admirers but he wants decided imitators. We cannot understand this love at a distance, it is not a spectator sport. There was a cross of Christ in the seminary of St John Vianney in Cagayan de Oro. One hand is nailed to the cross but the other is reaching out. “Come and join me, don’t be afraid. My crucified love can make everything new”. Let us not be afraid to join Christ on the cross. As Pope John Paul II reminded us “The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly-and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being-he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must "appropriate" and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself.”

If we don’t enter into this experience of love we will never find out what it is to be human. We say we are only human, if only we truly were! Jesus offers us the true essence of what it means to be man. Lord I want to be like you, walk like you, talk like you, love like you! And Jesus encourages us “Come and join me! Together we can make everything new!”

Good Friday

Good Friday

Fr. James McTavish FMVD

The Cross is the Triumph of God’s mercy

The cross is the triumph of God’s mercy. It is the triumph of love over hatred, of life over death. It is the victory of forgiveness over hatred and peace over violence. It is the victory of justice. Pope Benedict said that the cross is the school of God’s justice. God’s justice triumphs over man’s injustice. God’s mercy conquers all the hatred, violence and death. As a sign of victory, the great emperor Constantine the Great put the emblem of the cross on all the shields of his soldiers. He did this because before a decisive battle he saw a glowing cross in the sky with the message “In this sign conquer”. He had it placed on the shield of his soldiers and they went on to win the battle.

In what way is the cross really a victory though? In what way does God’s mercy triumph? We have been talking about our sins and the death of Jesus today. We see this afternoon how our sins have contributed to the death of Jesus. Once in a celebration of Good Friday a person shared a testimony. He said that this day we have experienced the death of Jesus. The disciple was a Doctor and he said if we had to be honest and say why Jesus died, what could we say? He gave the example of a death certificate. What is the cause of the death of Jesus? Our selfishness. But at the same time we are also witnesses to the great love of Jesus. He is the lamb of God, the suffering servant described so poetically and beautifully in the first reading - “It was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured… he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed… through his suffering, my servant shall justify many” (See Isaiah 52:13-53:12). There is a song called “When I survey the wondrous cross” and in it there is a question “Did ever such love and sorrow meet?” It is precisely in seeing our sinfulness and unworthiness that we see God’s great mercy!

Knowing that we are sinners and we are not worthy, Jesus goes to the cross with so much determination, with so much love. He knows that his death will atone for our sins. He nails our sins to the wood of the tree. On the cross he puts our death to death. God takes death into his own life and overcomes it. He destroys death in his own body. St Maximus the Confessor gave the image of death as a fierce dragon eating up all mankind. One man came and lived a life of pure love. He offered his flesh to the dragon. The flesh of Christ was so pure that the dragon was poisoned. “Christ’s flesh was set before that voracious, gaping dragon as bait to provoke him: flesh that would be deadly for the dragon, for it would utterly destroy him by the power of the Godhead hidden within it.” And Gregory of Nyssa described it thus ”Therefore, having swallowed the bait of the flesh, he was pierced by the hook of the Deity and thus the dragon was transfixed by the hook”. The love of God is the antidote for the poison of sin and death. In his great mercy we are saved. God’s love is stronger than death. This is why the cross is also known as the throne of mercy because the King of love is seated upon it. 

Mercy flows from the pierced side of Jesus. How can he be so merciful with us? Jesus is merciful because he is familiar with human weakness. He was God but also fully human in all things except sin. When it comes to weakness and suffering Jesus is in solidarity with us. In the second reading today from Hebrews we read “In the days when Christ was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered”. I remember an experience of suffering whereby I became very merciful to others. After having worn sandals for many years in Asia returning to Europe I had great difficulty wearing shoes. My ankles were very painful and caused me much suffering. After they became strengthened I went on a pilgrimage and I saw an old lady with a bandage on her ankle. How sensitive I was! I wanted to go and give her a big hug of support and solidarity. I knew exactly what it felt like. Jesus empathizes with us as he knows what it is to suffer. He did not sin but carried all the weight of our sins on the cross. The author of Hebrews states “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.” This is why we are encouraged to “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy” (See Hebrews Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9). 

Let us gaze at the cross and see rivers of mercy flowing from it. Let us see in those wounds of Jesus his great love for us. By his wounds we are healed. How can we see the love in those wounds? Perhaps an example can help. Once there was a young girl and her mother used to pick her up from school each day. The mother had a badly scarred face. When the daughter was younger she did not mind but as she got older she even got embarrassed that her mother came to pick her up. One day the daughter confronted her mum. “Mum, please don’t come to school anymore. My friends laugh at you. Why is your face is so scarred.” The mother told her “when you were younger you used to play with matches. I kept telling you that they were dangerous but you would not listen. One day you set fire to your room. I was in the garden and the whole house was on fire so fast. Some people tried to stop me going into the house because there was smoke everywhere. But they couldn’t hold me back. I entered into that nightmare of flames and smoke. I heard you crying out. I found you and clasped you in my arms and started to run for safety. As I was getting out a burning beam fell from the ceiling. I turned my body away to protect you but it hit me in the face. I kept going and got you outside safely then I collapsed.” The daughter looked at her mother with tears in her eyes, aware that that her mother was wounded because of her great love for the daughter. Looking at Jesus on the cross we see the great love in his wounds. He received them rescuing us from our wrongdoings. In his face we see the great mercy of God towards our lives.

The cross is a visible sign of God’s mercy towards us. God who has given us all things in his Son. Sometimes we can have fear in front of the cross. Will God accept me? Will he still embrace me? I have ignored him for so long. May times I am indifferent. Even when I know what I should do I am very slow to respond. Can God still love us after all we have done and all that we have failed to do? There is a famous song called “Tie a Yellow ribbon round the old oak tree”. It is about a young man who got involved in a bar room brawl. He hurt the other man and was put in prison. After three years he was due for release. He felt he had brought shame to his good family name. He did not want to make his family suffer more. He wrote to his sweetheart and told him that her was due for release. He would get a bus that passed through the town. If she accepted him, then he should tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree in their garden. If the boy didn’t see any ribbons he would know that she could not love him anymore, and could not forgive him. If so, the boy would jus carry on his journey on the bus and not stop so as never to trouble his family again. Imagine the shock when the boy arrived in the town and found not only the oak tree covered in yellow ribbons but half the whole town as well! The yellow ribbons were a sign of love. The cross is for us a huge yellow ribbon of God. He is the one tied to the wooden tree of the cross and tells us “I don’t condemn you. I came to save you.” All we need to do is to come back to him to receive his overflowing mercy. 

Sometimes we become tired of being far from home, of being far away from the Father’s house and his loving embrace. Conversion is a time to come to our senses and to head back to the Father. Even though we are a long way off he runs to our encounter to embrace us, kiss us, give us back our dignity as sons and daughters. How beautiful the welcome embrace of God. Once someone asked me “Can God really accept me after all my sins”. If only we had the confidence of St Theresa of Lisieux (Theresa of the Child Jesus). She had so much confidence in the love of God she said that even if she had committed the biggest sin she would not hesitate to run back to God her Father to ask forgiveness and receive his mercy. It reminded me of a little girl I saw in a mass in Santo Nino parish in Cebu, Philippines. She was only 3 years old but very naughty! Her daddy was trying to listen to the mass but she was causing havoc. Pulling funny faces, trying to take his keys and then trying to swing from his shirt. The father was so patient. Finally the little girl looked at her daddy and said “Kapoy!” (which means I am tired in Cebuano). Her daddy opened wide his arms and she fell into them. Jesus does the same for us too. He opens wide his arms on the cross. Don’t worry! If you fall I will catch you. His arms are wide open to embrace us, to embrace our faults and failings, to catch us when we fall and to support us. 

Jesus tells us from his cross “Look at me here. Didn’t I tell you that I would suffer? But it is out of love. My love conquers all. Even death. Can it win our heart?”. How great to experience God’s mercy. To soak and bathe in it, to be renewed. To receive a new mind and a new heart. The very heart of God. Let us enjoy his mercy and be filled with gratitude. To want to pay back this debt of love. Like the song “the debt of love that is owed by this thankful heart” so that through our lives others too can experience God’s mercy. To share this merciful love to others. Like in the film “Les Miserables”. The escaped convict receives kindness and hospitality from an old Bishop. The convict then steals his possessions and strikes him to the ground when he is discovered. When the police catch the convict, the Bishop, sporting a bruised face, forgives the convict and shows him mercy. The convict is overwhelmed with the mercy shown to him and spends the rest of his days being merciful to others, helping the poor, adopting an orphan and sharing God’s mercy with all. We too are all convicted of sin but Jesus shows us great mercy. Let us be merciful to others and rejoice this day over the victory of God’s mercy. The world is in need of God’s mercy, his love, his forgiveness. Let us continue this celebration today and ask for the grace to be vessels of his mercy. Amen.