Why do we talk about the Cross outside of Lent? Hasn’t Jesus won the victory over death and sin already? Can’t we just sing our alleluias and eat Peeps? The Church continues to talk about the Cross, especially during the Easter season, to remind us that the Resurrection shows us the true meaning of the Cross. The Resurrection, rather than pushing the Cross into the shadows, illuminates the Cross and reveals it to be the greatest demonstration of God’s love for us. When we look at the Cross in the light of the Resurrection, we can see at least two things: first, God has power over death and sin; and second, God’s love is Cross-shaped.
When we look at the Cross in the light of the Resurrection, we see God’s incredible power over sin and death. One of the unfortunate consequences of familiarity with our Lord’s Passion and Death is that we can become desensitized to the depths of the suffering that Christ endured at the hands of the Romans. The beatings, the scourging, the crowning with thorns; being torn to shreds, stripped, nailed, and left to die on a piece of wood—all of this was deeply traumatic.
Jesus predicted his Passion again and again throughout his ministry because he knew that the scandal and darkness of the Cross would frighten his disciples and that they would be tempted to doubt him. It is only in the light of the Resurrection, in the light of God’s power, that the disciples are able to see the suffering and death of Christ, not with merely human eyes, but with eyes of faith. They are able to see the suffering and death of Christ, not as something to be ashamed of, but rather, something in which to boast. In the light of the Resurrection, the Cross becomes the power and the wisdom of God.
Again, in the light of the Resurrection, we see that God’s love is Cross-shaped. It is through the love of Christ that we know the depths and the heights of God’s love for us. The Resurrection reveals that Christ’s sufferings and death were filled with love for the Father and for us. Saint Paul reminds us of this in his Letter to the Romans: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). It is precisely Christ’s death on the Cross for us sinners that reveals exactly how far God will go so that we might become His friends.
God goes to the Cross for us, taking our sins and our death with Him. The Resurrection shows us that it is in Jesus’ death that we have eternal life. What is true for Christ is true for us as well. In this Easter season, the Church invites us to look at our crosses in the light of the Resurrection. She invites us not to push our crosses into the shadows, but rather to expose them to the light of Christ’s Resurrected glory. Only when we see our crosses illuminated by this light will we be able to recognize the depths of God’s presence and love in the sufferings of our lives, and so look forward to the glories of the resurrection.
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
