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Reflections on the Cross
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Meditation on the
CROSS
By Peter Thompson
Before we can begin to comprehend the enormity of the sin of Deicide committed at Calvary nearly two thousand years ago we must first come to understand the true identity of the one who was so brutally crucified on that hill outside the walls of Jerusalem.
To Christians throughout the world we know at least with the knowledge imparted to us since childhood that it was Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died, nailed to the wood of the cross. We have heard and read the description of the Passion over and over again every Easter with the Gospel accounts read at Passion Sunday and Good Friday. We think we know them by heart and they are so familiar to us that we are in constant danger of taking them for granted and not really entering into the depth of this horrendous crime committed by humanity against their Creator.
Yes, a crime committed by each and everyone of us. We are all guilty and without excuse. Each of us has sinned, deliberately defying God our heavenly Father who in His great love decided to create the universe and us with an eternal soul, to know, love, serve him and to be with Him for all eternity in heaven. God did not need to create us. It added nothing to his perfection. God who is a Trinity of Love; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three distinct persons each with the fulness of the Divine Nature, One God co-eternal with each other chose to create. Firstly the angelic beings, pure spirits who were to surround the throne of God worshipping and glorifying God experiencing the perfect joy in beholding the Beatific Vision. We know from the words of Jesus that Lucifer rebelled and a third of this heavenly host were cast out and now roam the earth seeking to destroy God's other act of creative love, Humankind.
We know that God created the material universe from nothing. Yes No / Thing, no physical matter but from his word. Not a spoken word but the very thought of God created all that is, into existence including Man and Woman , unique in creation in that our soul is also spirit created for all eternity to worship and glorify God our Creator. who is love and beauty beyond our human understanding.
How God chose to create Adam we do not know, whether from pre existent life or immediately and literally from the dust of the earth. Theistic evolution is entirely compatible with Church teaching, also permanentism is compatible as Holy Mother the Church does not define science. However we are not free to embrace polygenism concerning our first parents. ( See Humani Generis #37 Pope Pius XII.)
We know that the sin of Adam was an actual sin breaking the relationship with God and shutting heaven to all the race of Adam to which we all belong.
In Gen. 3:15 we see the plan of God to restore this broken relationship, that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. We read in Is. 7:14 the prophecy that the Messiah will be born to a virgin and his name is Emmanuel , God with us.
In Micah 5:1 The very location of the birth of the Messiah is prophesied, Bethlehem.
Is. 53 describes the suffering servant and all that the Messiah will suffer on account of our sins.
Psalm 22 gives a detailed account of the crucifixion hundreds of years before the event.
All fulfilled in only one person the Lord Jesus Christ, the Second person of the Most Holy Trinity,
God from God, Light from Light. true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through him all things were made.
The Word made flesh. The Son of God freely embracing a human nature and becoming man. the GOD/MAN. Our Redeemer and Saviour.
Now we can begin to comprehend this infinite love and sacrifice of the Father in sending His eternally begotten Son to offer the perfect Sacrifice ( Mal 1:11) to lay down his life freely in reparation for the sins of mankind. To redeem every man woman and child who has ever lived and will yet be born. For every sin and iniquity hurled at the face of God throughout the ages in defiance of God our creator.
Here on the wood of the cross our sins are nailed. Satan is defeated. Our names carved in the palm of the Saviour's hands.( Is 49:16) The Spirit bearing witness to the blood and the water flowing from his side as the spear enters that Sacred Heart. ( 1Jn: 5 :6 ).
God died on the cross to defeat sin and death and to open heaven once again to the human race the sons of Adam.
This is the promise fulfilled on the cross at Calvary where our Saviour died, defeating death and rising in glory so that we might behold the Beatific vision and fulfill God's desire that none would be lost.
Lord open our eyes that we might behold your supreme love as we gaze upon the Cross.
Peter Thompson has served the Catholic Charismatic Renewal extensively since 1974 both in Canada and overseas, especially in Africa, He was appointed in 2003 to represent ICCRS to Canada, the USA, and the West Indies. He and his wife Madeleine reside in Calgary Alberta Canada.
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