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We wear it around our necks. We place it in the rooms of our homes, schools, and hospitals. We put it on the top of our buildings and people say, "That must be a Church. That person must be a Christian.” It is the best-known symbol of Christianity. It is the cross. Why is the cross so powerful? Is it because it reminds us of the actual events that took place some 2,000 years ago? On one hand, yes; we recall the specific day in history when the God manifested his love for us by allowing His Son to die the most shameful death possible to restore us to the life lost by our sinfulness. But the cross is more than a memory. It is the living sign from our Savior to love as He loved, to love with a sacrificial love that holds nothing back. It is a reminder that his love can never be overwhelmed by the darkness of sin or death.
The cross, originally a means of the worst type of shame and torture, has been transformed by the Lord into an instrument of love. It is an eternal testament to the power of God; he can take the worst possible thing and turn it into life, hope, and renewal. For this reason, we come to the cross this evening with a mixture of gratitude, awe, and sorrow. We will touch and kiss the crucifix as a concrete way of expressing these emotions to the Lord. We come and ask Jesus to help us love as He loved, to live in a way that puts others before ourselves. We come to the cross this evening and we give Jesus our sins, our pains, and our sorrows. We know in our hearts that we ourselves are in some way responsible for what he suffered. Our own sins have in some way, contributed to his Passion and Death. We experience a whole range of emotions from grief on one hand to gratitude on the other.
As a priest and pastor, Good Friday is one of the of most meaningful liturgies to me. I am filled with so many emotions whenever I watch parishioners come forward to venerate the cross. I am blessed to know many of your stories. I see you come forward expressing a deep faith that the Lord will care for you and your loved ones, a deep trust that all will be well even if the future is uncertain. The procession to the cross embodies faith in action for all who are in pain right now, all those who are suffering. The cross becomes hope and confidence for those fighting cancer, ALS, dementia, Parkinson’s and other serious ailments. The cross is a sign of life for those mourning the loss of a spouse, a child, a parent, a family member, or friend. The cross is encouragement for those with chronic pain, unfaithful spouses, broken marriages, mental illness, or anything else that threatens our faith and hope in God. Finally, the cross is something to lean on for all who have lost their job, who are caring for an elderly parent, a sick child, or just feel alone or unloved. All of these are embodied in us, as we come forward to venerate the cross. All of us, despite our struggles, sadness, and setbacks, have found happiness in this hope that Jesus cannot be defeated by the worst human beings can do.
This evening, we are blessed to include a number of beautiful relics embedded in the cross we will venerate. These are contained in 4 small round cases, which you may kiss or touch when you come forward. On the top is a small piece of the scroll which hung above Jesus’ head and said, “Jesus the Nazorean, King of the Jews.” Beneath that, there is a reliquary containing a small piece of the crown of thorns, a fragment of the pillar where Jesus was scourged by the Romans, and a small amount of soil from the Holy Sepulcher where he was laid after being taken off the cross. Looking to the left, you will see a relic of St. Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and proclaimed, “Truly, this was the Son of God” when all went dark and the earth quaked as Jesus died. Finally, looking right, you will see a reliquary which holds a splinter from the cross of St. Dismas, the good thief, who turned to Jesus in his final agony and begged, “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom!” These relics remind us that our God’s love and salvation is so close to us that we can literally see and feel it, even 2000 years later.
Each of us comes here tonight with our own crosses, worries, and sufferings. ”How am I going to make it through these difficulties?” many of us ask every day. God’s answer is found in the outstretched arms of Christ crucified. He invites us to come to the cross. Give your problems and challenges to the Lord and know that no matter what happens, as the mystic Julien of Norwich wrote, "All will be well.” For when everything is placed in the hands of the one who died for us, every challenge, every illness, loss, or sadness, every difficulty that life throws at us becomes a prayer united to the power of our Crucified Savior which conquers all things, even death itself. Come to the cross! Unite the challenges of your lives to the cross. And know that the One who loved us, to the death, will also love us into new and eternal life!
