2023-02-16 A Meditation on the Cross

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;” (Jn 20:30 ESV)

As an emblem of the church, the Cross occupies a place in our heart standing at the ready. They Cross occupies a place in our heart in poetic good form this day, ready for all things to swirl and pivot around that bedrock of the heart formed and the faith attested to. The Cross picks us up when life unburdens itself in vague gestures in the direction of those like us who are now confident.

Now confident, newly minted, it is unfair but true: we immediately are called to the mat. Immediately, the mettle now in the heart is tested. Immediately, things go topsy-turvy. Immediately, we hear a voice now over this shoulder or that other shoulder: “Walk in my ways… bless those who you live amongst… contain your enthusiasm but bring it to shine forth…”. Funny almost, it is painful and exasperating that we aren’t allotted a small time of honeymoon; we are forever consigned to chasing an impossible fugitive aspect of our heart, because of things we failed to shore up at the outset. Yet it is a constantly-recreated opening. Friendship. That place where we were loved and converted. God is patient, and intends salvation for the skeptical amongst us, too.

Emblems we choose with solemnity. We choose the Cross as an emblem because it teaches us to cope with the existential persecutor, teaches us to accept “Wham!” in our lives but not let that decking be the final blow. We are brought to the deck, but rise again. We have today that glimmering poetry of being part of an army of the willing at the ready. We believe that the better we know ourselves, the more complete we are in our lives of service. We become better soldiers. We have heard the rumors that man only uses ten percent of his mind on any given day; the other percentage is beginning to let out. We are beginning to soar, to excite over Gospel truth, to be appropriate to neighbor and friend with a positivity met with a curiosity unheard of. It was unheard of that so much love should be operating. It is unheard of that our weaker selves no longer handicap and give pause, but rather that we see manifest strength because of Resurrection Power. On the other side of that emblem, the Cross, and all it stands for. On the other side of living into the hardship and the life “out there” that now unburdens itself “in here”. O Lord, help us to pray. Help us to learn something of Your power and strength. Help us to be all things with positivity and gregarious good will.

Today it means everything to our friend and neighbor that we Rise again, though befuddled and though all secondary concerns seem suddenly to vie for our attention. As though, because we are soldiering with such success, it is deemed by some evil spirit a good time to talk about a few things, a few things previously misunderstood. A few revelations as to how and why we find ourselves where we are today. A few turncoats, even, in our lives; the “How could you?” resounding and trying to cause us to curl up and claim defeat. Yet we are those strong in that emblem the Cross. No matter, we are those patient to listen and postpone some things.

Yet we are those living through deeds of service rather than through being the right thing to those souls accidentally near to us. We are prayerful for them. We are encouraging to them. But we have another platform to attend to this day. This hour we have other concerns. This day we begin to move beyond the worried realizations, and say to ourselves, “It isn’t the end of the world; God saw, and God blessed; things are not so bad as we feared”. We are shored up because our own testimony is of heart change and being loved right on through the sinful past. Such is the mystery of how the Spirit leads, first with this one, and then with another. We each of us are leaders. We each of us are arriving, not late, but in God’s timing. Humored by our errors but love because things were in part told us, even if those told prophecies in our heart were of a despair too great for our heart, now we see He intended love all through and through. So we have improved our submission, not to Man, but to God’s Spirit. And now we are the faith-filled faithful on patrol.