{"id":4925,"date":"2013-09-16T08:05:43","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T07:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=4925"},"modified":"2013-09-16T08:25:01","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T07:25:01","slug":"4925","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2013\/09\/4925\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cross and the Face of Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Crux<\/a>Here is the homily that I preached at Knock on Saturday, 14 September in the Chapel of the Apparition.
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Glory in the Cross<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is for us to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom is our health, life and Resurrection: through whom we have been saved and set free\u201d (Introit).\u00a0 Celebrating today the mystery of the Cross, we fix our gaze not upon an instrument of torture and of shame but, rather, upon the glorious Face of Christ and upon the Tree of Life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Apocalypse 22:2).\u00a0 We lift our eyes to the royal throne of the King of glory, the sign of the Son of Man that will appear in the heavens at the end of the age (Matthew 24:30).\u00a0 To the eyes of faith, the Cross, illuminated by the adorable Face of Jesus, shines \u00a0more brightly than the sun.<\/p>\n

The Face of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fix your gaze upon the adorable Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ; contemplate the countenance that, from the earliest preaching of the Gospel, captivated believers, drawing them irresistibly into the love wherewith God first loved us. In the apse of ancient Christian basilicas, it was not uncommon to see an immense cross, worked in shimmering mosaic. The body of Christ was not depicted on the cross; instead, at the center of the cross, in a shining circle at the juncture of the vertical and horizontal beams, was an image of the Holy Face of Christ. The arms of the Cross converged in the Face of Christ, His most distinctive characteristic.<\/p>\n

At the Centre of the Cross<\/strong><\/p>\n

The uniqueness of each human face expresses the uniqueness of each person\u2019s identity. Our personal identity is linked to the image of our face, as on a photo ID card. By placing the Face of Christ at the center of the Cross, the artisans of old were suggesting that the Cross is the key to Christ\u2019s identity and the Face of Christ the key to understanding the mystery of the Cross. Apart from the Cross, there is no knowledge of Christ, no understanding of His mission, no experience of His love, no way of answering the question put to Peter in today\u2019s Gospel, \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d (Mk 8:29).<\/p>\n

\"Face<\/a>The Visible Sign of God\u2019s Healing Mercy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The liturgy of today\u2019s feast\u00a0 infuses an awe-inspiring awareness of the Cross as the visible sign of God\u2019s healing mercy, the cause of our indefectible and abiding joy.\u00a0 \u201cThe Royal Banners forward go; the Cross shines forth in mystic glow\u201d (Vexilla Regis<\/i>, Vespers). The Church sings in today\u2019s introit that the Cross of Christ is the source of health (salus<\/i>), of life, and of Resurrection.\u00a0 The eyes of the Church are filled with the brightness of the Cross.\u00a0 She looks towards the wood of the Cross and is made radiant by the Resurrection.\u00a0 Look to the Cross, and be radiant; let your faces not be abashed (Psalm 33:6)!<\/p>\n

The Saving Wood<\/strong><\/p>\n

The wood of the tree by which Adam fell (Gn 3:12) is today the wood of the tree by which Adam is saved.\u00a0 The wood of the ark by which Noah, \u201chis sons, his wife, and his son\u2019s wives\u201d (Gn 6:14) were saved from the flood is today the wood by which joy has flooded the world.\u00a0 The wood by which Moses sweetened the bitter waters of Marah (Ex 15:25) is today the wood by which all the world\u2019s bitterness is made sweet.<\/p>\n

Health to Sickly Souls Is Given<\/strong><\/p>\n

The First Lesson was a dramatic reminder that all of us, without exception, have suffered the venomous bite of the ancient serpent.\u00a0 We cross the wilderness of this life limping, and burning with a fever for which no earthly remedy can be found.\u00a0 Our new Moses, Christ, intercedes with the Father on our behalf and, in response, we are given the mystery of the Cross.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself\u201d (John 12:32).\u00a0 The Cross, illumined by the Holy Face of Christ, is the source of our healing; it is the remedy for every affliction, the antidote for every poison, the medicine for every weakness.\u00a0 One of the antiphons at Matins, rhythmically translated, says: \u201cCross most gracious \/ from whose aspect \/ health to sickly souls is given\/ with what praises shall I praise thee \/ who hast brought us life from heaven?<\/p>\n

When We Are Stung by Vipers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like the children of Israel we have to be brought back to God again and again.\u00a0 When we are strong and successful, when we \u201cwax fat, grow thick, and become sleek\u201d (Deuteronomy 32:15), how easily we forget the works of the Lord!\u00a0 When we experience failure, sickness, loneliness, weakness, and sin, when we stumble, fall, and lose our way with darkness all about us, when we are stung by vipers and beset with fever and thirst, then do we turn back, led on by severe and tender mercies, to the source of all healing and strength.<\/p>\n

\"Ordination<\/a>The Holy Ghost and the Cross<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cross is where the weakness of the flesh encounters the power of the Holy Ghost. It was from the Cross that the gift of the Holy Ghost was first poured out upon the Church in the kiss of the Bridegroom\u2019s mouth and in a mystery of water and of blood.\u00a0 \u201cHe bowed his head, says Saint John, and gave up his spirit\u201d (John 19:30). Is there a more sublime depiction of the Holy Face than this, \u201cHe bowed his head and gave up his spirit\u201d? And again, \u201cone of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water\u201d (John 19:34).\u00a0 The Face of Jesus serene and beautiful in death cannot be separated from the mystery of His pierced side.\u00a0 The breath, the blood, and the water are the abiding signs of the Holy Ghost poured out whenever the Church assembles in faith at the foot of the holy and life-giving Cross.\u00a0 The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is, at once, an actualization of the mystery of the Cross and an outpouring of the Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n

Secure in the Arms of the Cross<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, the Cross, illumined by the Holy Face of Jesus, is where every brokenness, injury, and wound encounters the compassion of the Father.\u00a0 We are called not so much to embrace the Cross as to allow ourselves to be embraced by it, for the arms of the Cross are the strong arms of the Eternal Father\u2019s compassion.\u00a0 When the Holy Ghost begins to work in a soul, that soul is compelled to fix her eyes upon the Face of Jesus, and to throw herself into the arms of the Cross because there, and there alone, is she held secure in the embrace of the Father\u2019s merciful love.\u00a0 The Cross of the Son shines with the love of the Father reflected on the Face of the Son; therein is the remedy for every misery, shadow, weakness, betrayal, and fear.<\/p>\n

Jacob\u2019s Mystic Ladder<\/strong><\/p>\n

The glorious Cross is a Trinitarian mystery.\u00a0 The healing compassion of the Father and the power of the Holy Ghost await us in the Cross of the Son.\u00a0 By the Cross of Christ, as by the mystic ladder beheld by Jacob in a dream (Genesis 28:12) the mercy of the Father and the power of the Holy Ghost descend even to us.\u00a0 By the same Cross of Christ, we ascend to the Father in the power of the Holy Ghost.\u00a0 Jacob dreamed \u201cthat there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.\u00a0 And behold, the Lord stood above it\u201d (Genesis 28:12).\u00a0 This is the mystery of the Cross revealed in figure and foreshadowing; this is the reality of the mysteries we celebrate here and now.<\/p>\n

The Place of Christ\u2019s Priesthood<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cross is the place of Christ\u2019s glorious priesthood with its descending and ascending mediation.\u00a0 Wheresoever and whensoever the liturgy is enacted, Christ the great High Priest stands in our midst, His Face is turned towards the Father, and his glorious Cross is rendered present.\u00a0 Health and joy descend into the world \u2014 and into our hearts \u2014 by the wood of the Cross and, by the wood of the Cross, the ladder that spans the chasm separating time from eternity, and this world from the next, we who are estranged and exiled from the beauty of the divine glory ascend into the splendour of the Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Holy Mass: Presence of the Cross\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cross and the Holy Face are \u2014 the Eucharistic Face of Jesus \u2014 are present in every Holy Mass, not as the memory of a hill far away, but as a dynamic reality drawing us together into unity and then, upward, to the Father, with the Son, in the Holy Ghost.\u00a0 The Liturgy of the Word of God (the first part of Holy Mass) is always a preaching and a presence of the Word of the Cross, \u201cfolly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God\u201d (1 Cor 1:18).\u00a0 The Liturgy of the Holy Sacrifice (the second part of Holy Mass) is always a confession and a presence of the mystery of the Cross in the fullness of its Trinitarian dimensions, and in the actualization of its power.<\/p>\n

Through the Cross into the Kingdom<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have heard the Word of God. We have been illumined by a ray of light shining from the Face of Christ.\u00a0\u00a0 Held fast in the mystic embrace of the Cross, let us go to the altar.\u00a0 Through the Word of the Cross, the compassion of the Father, the power of the Holy Ghost, and the brightness shining from the Face of the Son have descended into our midst; let us then, ascend, by the mystery of the Cross made present in this Holy Sacrifice, to the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost to whom be all glory and praise, now and always and unto the ages of ages.\u00a0 Amen, Alleluia!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the homily that I preached at Knock on Saturday, 14 September in the Chapel of the Apparition. Glory in the Cross \u201cIt is for us to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom is our health, life and Resurrection: through whom we have been saved and set free\u201d (Introit).\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/saVypq-4925","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4925"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4931,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4925\/revisions\/4931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}