Feeling comfort from the Cross for the first time

Thanks for sharing your experience and connecting the dots for me, an almost 70 year old woman who has struggled to understand the cross for most of my life. Having been born in Europe where a crucifix hung in almost every room, I felt the cross/crucifix to be quite oppressive especially as a child. But the explanation that you shared about the fact that Jesus died also to heal us from our suffering definitely brings about the "solace" that you sister Emily speaks of. It is not just about sin, our own personal sin and our guilt but also the sins of others who caused our suffering....somehow this understanding of the cross/crucifixion also helps make forgiveness easier. Again thanks. Your article was one of the better things that I read during this Lent

Maybe it's just a matter of temperament but I cannot see the cross and our sins as the starting point in our search for God. God loved us in his bosom from all eternity and Jesus' was his message, God's inestimable gift to us, the "good news," his way of taking us into his life,a new life through making us one with his son. God wanted to give us his life through Jesus despite our sins not because of them. Salvation is only negatively freedom from sin, the new life is what is important. Our fixation on sin keeps us concentrating on ourselves instead of God's love that Jesus in himself symbolizes. He accepted death on the cross because he couldn't compromise the message of his father's love with the power holders of his time, but he didn't die to bequeath a message from his father of suffering. Sr. Rose's statement "Christianity is theologically structured on the reality of sin; it is the ultimate explanation for Jesus'birth, live, death, and resurrection." gives the lie to God's love as the starting point of our life with him in Jesus.

"Fr. Thomas explained, “The whole purpose of the rite of exorcism is to relieve suffering. Many people don’t realize this about the crucifixion and the power of the crucifix. Yes, Jesus died for our sins, but he also died to relieve our suffering and to heal us from the effects of sin.”
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The mechanism of personal/social self-fulfillment is Eucharistic Altruism, divine/human hypostasis, the intentional equating of other with self, and the expenditure of self in other — what divinity does, what self-fulfilled humanity does — Ultimate Eucharist.
“No greater gift can one give than lay down his/her life for another.” http://justifiedliving.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979...

Personally I find the crucifix a source of meaning.

As my mother lay 4 days in her death agony -- Cheyne Stokes breathing -- dying of terminal cancer a glance at the crucifix was the only source of strength/consolation.

Regarding the business of "Jesus not being Catholic" -- the Catholic Church is the legitimate heir of the Jewish Temple.

It was the Pharisees who presssed the Roman authorities for the crucifixion; their heirs are in the present-day synagogue.

"After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE Pharisaic beliefs became the basis for Rabbinic Judaism, which ultimately produced the normative traditional Judaism which is the basis for all contemporary forms of Judaism except for Karaism."

A definite confusion exists among Catholics regarding the disconnect between Old Testament Judaism and Talmudic Pharisaism.

You might find these article of educational value:

http://mondediplo.com/2008/09/07israel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisees

Jesus died because he was condemnded to death and executed. It is difficult for me whenever I read any explanation as to what God wanted, as if God could want, and if a God could any one of us would know it. Even worse in this day and age is the invocation of demons and angels. There is quite a stretch of the imagination and reckless faith to leap to such a conclusion. When the cardinals convene in conclave to elect a pope, they do so in order to be guided by the Holy Spirit. That refrain 'guided by the Holy Spirit' is oft repeated in many and diverse venues. The problem is, no one gets any feed back, there is no known outcome. When suggested that the average American president is a better person than the average pope; we conclude either the Holy Ghost failed in Her job, no one was listening, or it is simply nonsense. I opt for the latter. The New Testament rather than the Judaic testament is preoccupied with demons, casting them out from various ailments now known to the medical field as an illness...but go and sin no more. Even worse all opposition to the Christian movement was demonic influenced and possessed. Can any rational person, removed from religious indoctrination, truly belief in demonic myths and superstitions and not smirk.

Dear Sr. Rose,
Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your blog this Good Friday. It formed a closing to my private prayer and enriched my practice. So often we do not see this form as a way to enrich prayer, but rather as a way to grip about something we don't like in our church. It's really very special to be feed by your thoughts and words and to see how even the secular world can at times feed our souls with informative art that allows us to see the world in a different light and more importantly, our relationship with our Savior. Thank you!

For another perspective read "The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem" by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan. It will help as well.

Truly, you are a breath of fresh air!

Thank you for your open and honest take on spirituality.

You are a vowed religious and I am a lay woman as is your sister, but you have touched a nerve with me as has my own sister, who is also a vowed religious.

I understand what you said Sister Rose. I too thought the cross or crucifix a kind of negative thing. This was because I had what any child has tyically, a child's understanding of the cross and that being that I was a sinner, so our Good Lord had to come and die for my sins. Wow, if I say it that way... it does sound awful negative.

Now, though, I can say I have a different take. I had to get to the point of no longer being able to lift up my head anymore in order to see that God was on that cross not to proclaim what a sinner I was, but how much He loved me. The length to which He would go to in order to proclaim that I was not only forgiveable and saveable.. worth saving, but also loveable and worth loving. Mercy and love are hand and hand together. When you need a merciful Savior, that is when a soul truly begins to draw nearer to that Savior and ask the question "Why do you love me this much? I do not deserve it." To which He replies "You are mine and you belong to me." I love that part of the cross! We are His by right and He defends our dignity with everything He has in His divine and Sacred Heart. We are worth the price of the blood of God Himself! How loving can a person be? No more love can anyone give another than to give their life in order that the other may live. I am enamoured of our Savior here especially when He cries "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." He makes a defense for us to the Father already from the cross. He is already defending us before the Father! How beautiful is His love, especially from the cross!!!

Good article. The Cross of Christ is the whole crux of Christianity because it is the portal to eternal life with Christ. We must crucify our worldly, fleshly desires, dying to self-(only accomplished through the blood of Jesus)-and living unto Christ; as the Apostle Paul so aptly put it in Galatians 2:20, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
We therefore do not suffer the wrath of God for Jesus suffered it for us. The ugliness of sin displayed in Christ's suffering; so we no longer take sin lightly. Baptisim symbolizes our death to the world and life unto Christ. Without repentance we do not know we need a savior.