(a cross in the cottage)
(This reflection is by Fr. S. Joseph Krempa, and appears in his DAILY HOMILIES for the season of Lent, pp.97-98)
On the cross it all comes together. The cross is perhaps the central devotion of Christian spirituality. If we could point to any one symbol that captures everything Jesus was and is, everything He said and did, it would be the crucifix. The cross contains all kinds of meanings. It says a great deal about mankind and about God; it says a great deal about love and hate; it says much about sin and about grace. It is as though all the parables, healings and discourses of the Lord imploded into the cross and Christian thinkers have spent centuries drawing that meaning out. We bring our own meanings to the cross as well. It is the one constant in our lives from the time we were children. It is no surprise that the crucifix has a central place in all Christian churches. Like the bronze serpent which Moses raised in the desert, it is at once a symbol and an instrument of healing. Generations of Christians have looked to the cross as the most dramatic and profound symbol of the meaning of Christ. It freezes the moment of death, of human excess and, as John's Gospel emphasizes, the moment of new life as Jesus hands over the Spirit.
In prayer, we can take some time during Lent to exercise our spiritual sight and look at our lives in the light of the cross. It is the perfect image of God's love and of the reach of human love as well.
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