When visitors come to St. Ignatius, one of the things they often point out, is how the shadow cast by the cross in the main sanctuary here, remind them of the three crosses of Calvary on Good Friday. The two thieves crucified on the right and the left, with our Blessed Lord in the middle.
I do not know if this lighting trick was intentional, it was not part of the original design, for some of you may remember the baldachino that stood behind the high altar for…oh, about 80 years.
But the removal of the baldachino allowed for the placement of one of the most beautiful crucifixes in the diocese, if you ask me.
The crucifix, the cross, is the great symbol of our faith. Many Catholics wear crosses and crucifixes around their necks, some of them simple gold or silver, some decorated with precious jewels. We hang crucifixes in our homes, some of us in every room.
In a sense, this is a strange tradition. After all, the cross is an instrument of cruel torture - the cruelest torture perhaps ever invented by man: nails driven through the nerve bundles between the wrist and the palm of the hand, so every time the crucified moved - which he had to do if he wanted to keep breathing - the nails rubbed against the raw nerves and shot lightning pain through the body.
A cruel instrument of torture, and yet, wherever you go in the world, you will see crosses and crucifixes beautifully, exquisitely decorated with gold and jewels, adorning churches, crosses clutched tightly in moments of fear, sadness or held delicately by the pious to help direct their prayer.
Why adorn our crosses, why venerate them, why grip them so tightly?
It is certainly a reminder. The most important reminder of the most important truth: the very intensity of the suffering of the cross represents the ineffable intensity of love that God has for each one of us.
While dying on the cross, Jesus looks out at each one of us, whose sins have nailed him there, and he says: I forgive you, do not fear, come back to me, I want your friendship.
This is why we reverence, we venerate, we kiss the cross today. For by doing so we kiss the heart of God, who forgives us…all sins.
The love shown on the cross, which is manifest for us today, embraces us in our sinfulness, and invites us to conform our hearts to his, to trust in Him, to follow in Christ's obedient footsteps, never fleeing from the vocation to which God has called us, so that we can deepen our communion with him and experience the fullness of life that comes from that communion.
Venerate the cross with all the love and contrition and gratitude you can muster today. Kiss it, bow your head to it, kneel before it. By doing so you express your faith, hope, and love in our crucified Savior, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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