September 14th, The Feast of the Triumph of the Cross

There have been millions of symbols in the world. However, the most recognized symbol the world over is that of Christ crucified. There are millions of people who blatantly exhibit this symbol as their sartorial appendage, millions have faced death holding on to this symbol, countless number of homes give this a central place and innumerable churches’ entry confront you with the prominent display of the dis-empowered Christ; this is indeed the ultimate communication which has been baffling people ever since the Golgotha.

In the fourth century, the mother of the Roman Emperor, Constantine, St. Helena set off to Jerusalem looking for the holy places in the life of Christ. A temple of Venus had been built over the tomb of Jesus to avoid the veneration of the site by the followers of Jesus. She raised the temple to the ground and found three crosses. It was easy for her to find out the cross of Christ due to Pilots inscription of the criminal charges on the cross. The cross became an object of veneration and the pieces of the cross were distributed in various Churches of different denominations.

Perhaps the cry of Jesus: My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me is Jesus’ moment of total aloneness, the pinnacle of his dis-empowerment by which he tasted the bitterest anguish of humanity. Jesus in his dis-empowerment has experienced the deepest despair, encountered the most overwhelming evil, have stood in realms distanced from any inkling of peace, love and happiness.  Christ came out victorious by asserting that his way of showing himself that he is the Son of God will be as the suffering servant of Yahweh. The traits of his dis-empowerment are in his suffering, service and insignificance. He bore our sorrows, suffering and our sin. The hallmark of his mission was submissiveness to His Father’s plan for him expressed in poignant silence, suffering and shame. It was surrendering his will to the will of God the Father.

Christ has many attributes. One of them is that of Christ the King. However, human beings are more drawn to the image of the dis-empowered body of Christ on the cross. Faced with unmanageable helplessness clutching the crucifix has strengthened men across the globe. When misfortune strikes and takes away at one blow everything that you cherish, be it your spouse, child or friend, the long gaze at the dis-empowered body of Christ has helped many to grin and bear the trauma and fall back on the business of life. In the torture chambers of the armies and the police where the prisoners are subjected to hideous indignities too macabre to think it is the image of the Christ on the cross that has sustained the victims. In the hospital beds where bodies writhe in pain and crouch in helpless postures the crucifix has given hope and meaning. On the death bed the crucifix held close to the heart has given thousands the grit to face the ultimate hour with equanimity. In the last phase of life, in a typical Christian burial we have our dignified exit holding the cross between our hands.

In the words of Gerard Manly Hopkins, the Jesuit priest poet: “Stroke and a stress that stars and storms deliver is the Mystery of the cross at which the faithful waver, the faithless fable and miss”. Christ in Hopkins’ words is the hero of Calvary and his dis-empowered body on the cross is the ultimate communication and the sole testimony of the triumph of the cross.