Yesterday was Holy Cross (a.k.a.: the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross). In my years as a Catholic, I have always thought it somewhat an odd feast. No, I did not think of it as wrong; certainly not. Yet, having the feast focus on an object of Christ's death, apart from the death itself has always felt odd. Until this year. I will admit (as anyone who has been reading this blog lately will admit also) that lately I have thought a lot about this current crisis for the Church and what it means for us. Those thoughts connected well with this feast this year.
Consider this first: in the first century, before Jesus came along, no one wanted to have a wooden cross as a symbol on their walls at home. Yet, in less than a generation, that changed. For both Gentiles and Jews in the first century, the cross was a symbol of death and torture. It brought to mind the same things that a guillotine would bring to our minds: something repulsively brutal. It would be hard to imagine anyone--before the resurrection of Christ--seeing a cross and thinking of it as a symbol of hope. Rather, for people in the first century, the cross inspired fear and terror.
That changed with what Christ did on the cross. That specific Holy Cross, became for our Lord both a means of His death, and also the very altar where He offered Himself to God the Father. Seeing its dual purpose, the early Christians began to associate it as a symbol representing the totality of what Christ suffered in His passion. This is how we see it in some of the earliest paintings that those first Christians made.
That, however, is not the only symbol that we receive from the cross. Think about the radical change that occurred from viewing it as a horrible means of death, to viewing it as a symbol of hope. It technically changed in a matter of just a few days (from the first Good Friday, to the first Resurrection Sunday). It is the very fact of the change which should impact our hearts. Symbolism is important for our understanding of the world, and changes in symbolism are also significant. Just as an atheist who converts and becomes Catholic will view the symbols of the Church in a whole new light after his conversion, so we should recognize that those types of changes will effect us spiritually.
What does the change itself symbolize for us? It shows us that no matter how bad we may view something (an experience, an event, an object, even a person), God can change it into something good. He can take "ugly" and make it "beautiful". He can take a point of sadness and make it become a point of joy. He can take a device that repulses us, and make it something that draws us in. He did it with the cross; He can do it with anything that we experience. God can even take this current crisis that the Church is experiencing (which may become one of the worst she has ever had) and turn it into something that is for our good, and for His glory. Our God is truly amazing!
