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by Fr. Thomas Hopko –\nThe Cross says everything about God, everything about human life, everything about history. <\/p>\n
by Fr. Thomas Hopko –
\nThe Cross says everything about God, everything about human life, everything about history. <\/p>\n
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It\u2019s very important for us to realize, today particularly\u2014that\u2019s what we\u2019re here for\u2014that our faith is not a faith that is what you might call in modern terms a \u201cphilosophy of life.\u201d It\u2019s not a teaching in the sense that we have people who gave us teachings to show us the ways to wisdom and knowledge. It\u2019s certainly not an ideology of any kind that\u2019s in conflict with other ideologies\u2014at least it shouldn\u2019t be\u2014but that our whole life as Christians, our whole identity as Christians, is not connected to a teaching or a doctrine or a set of regulations or rules or even commandments as such. It is a life that is totally defined, not by a teaching, but by a Person.<\/p>\n
Our whole life is connected to the Person of Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth<\/strong>, whom we believe is<\/em> the incarnation of all teaching. He is certainly the living presence of God\u2019s teaching, of God\u2019s word. One of His titles even is \u201cthe Word of God,\u201d but He is the Word of God who is made flesh and who dwells among us, full of grace and truth. We believe that He doesn\u2019t simply show us the way to life or the way to truth, but that He is<\/em> the way, He is<\/em> the life, He is<\/em> the truth.<\/p>\n And that our whole life and our whole way and our whole truth is connected to Him and being in communion with Him, following Him, trusting Him, receiving His Spirit, following His way, literally even becoming His members, members of Him, members of His body. So that, really, Christ is formed in us, we become by the grace of His Spirit\u2014God\u2019s Holy Spirit\u2014Christ ourselves, and then live in the communion with God that He has, God His Father, and to have that same exact communion that Christ has with God by God\u2019s own Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n This is why St. Paul said that when he comes teaching, he doesn\u2019t come with eloquence, he doesn\u2019t come with worldly wisdom, he doesn\u2019t come with some kind of program or philosophy, he doesn\u2019t come with a set of rules, but he comes with just one thing: the Person of Christ. Bringing Christ means, always and essentially, Christ and Him crucified. So St. Paul says our preaching does not come with eloquence or worldly wisdom. We don\u2019t impress people by the rhetoric or the style or what we have, he said, but we preach Christ crucified.<\/p>\n Then he said that the preaching of Christ crucified\u2014the Word of the Cross<\/strong>\u2014that\u2019s the title of our day today, this preaching of the Word of the Cross, Christ crucified\u2014for those who want power, who want God\u2019s activity, so to speak, on the terms of this<\/em> world\u2014victory, power, glory, crushing the enemies, and so on\u2014that the preaching of Christ and Christ crucified is just scandalous. It\u2019s a stumbling block, skandalon<\/em> in Greek, a stumbling block. It\u2019s kind of crazy. It\u2019s crazy to think that everything that comes from God and the meaning of life and the Person of life is connected to the person of this crucified Jew. It\u2019s just crazy.<\/p>\n And the Jews themselves, he said, are totally scandalized by that. How can it be that God\u2019s Son, God\u2019s Messiah, the one who is supposed to come into the world as the king with all power, glory, dominion, the Son of Man, who\u2019s supposed to be enthroned at the right hand of the Father, giving vindication to justice and having all the world worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob\u2014how can it be that this one comes and is crucified? Scandals. Scandalous. Totally unacceptable, and it\u2019s equally unacceptable for Muslims to follow that same line, the idea of God becoming a man and being crucified, it\u2019s just scandalous.<\/p>\n Then St. Paul said, \u201cBut for those\u201d\u2014he calls them the Greeks, the Gentiles\u2014\u201cwho want widsom<\/strong>\u201d\u2014sophia<\/em>: they want clear explanations, rational teachings, things that are convincing to their human mind\u2014he said that Christ crucified is just foolishness, it\u2019s just folly, it\u2019s just dumb. In Greek, it\u2019s the word from which you get the English word \u201cmoron\u201d: m\u014dria<\/em>, foolishness. You\u2019re just moronic.<\/p>\n So for one there is a scandal, for others it\u2019s moronic, it\u2019s folly, but then he says\u2014and this is where we get the title of our talk today\u2014\u201cThough the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.\u201d He said: For we preach Christ crucified, a scandal to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, to those who believe, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is more powerful than men.<\/p>\n What we want to do today is we want to spend our time contemplating, meditating, thinking about, ruminating about, what is the meaning of the Word of the Cross? Why is it this way? We\u2019re not going to so much explain\u2014because it\u2019s really hard to explain it\u2014but what we will do is to try to think about it, to try to hear it, what it is that God is showing us, what it is that He\u2019s telling us in this very center of our faith, because the very center of our faith is the Cross<\/strong>. The very center of our worship is \u201cThis is my Body, broken; this is my Blood, shed for the life of the world.\u201d It\u2019s our very center of everything, and that\u2019s why in the middle of Lent we put the cross out all week, that\u2019s why the whole year is centered around the passion of Christ and His victorious Resurrection, the Pascha of the Cross, as it says, the old saying in Greek: \u201cPascha Stavrou \u0113mon, Pascha t\u0113s [Anastase\u014ds]<\/em>\u2014the Pascha of our Cross, the Pascha of the Resurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n But it\u2019s the center of our whole existence. It\u2019s everything for us.<\/strong> What is this everything? What is it that we are to see and to hear, that we are to contemplate and look upon when we hear and see the Word of the Cross? By the way, it\u2019s important to note that in the Gospel, the New Testament, St. John, for example, says that the Word of the Cross, the Word of Life, is not only heard. It\u2019s seen, it\u2019s touched, it\u2019s tasted. It\u2019s not just the word that is a kind of a teaching word.<\/p>\n In the Greek language, many of you know here, being Greeks and being very Christianly literate, you know that the word for \u201cword\u201d in Greek is the \u201clogos<\/em>,\u201d which has that connotation of meaning the fullness of the meaning of everything. But actually the word \u201cword,\u201d in the New Testament, when it says, \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God, and then the Word became flesh<\/em> and dwelt among us to be crucified,\u201d that \u201cword\u201d comes from the Old Testament, primarily, not from Greek philosophy or Greek teaching, but from the Bible. The word \u201cword\u201d in Hebrew, dabar<\/em>, it doesn\u2019t only mean \u201cword.\u201d It means \u201cact.\u201d It means \u201cobject.\u201d It means \u201cthing.\u201d You see? That same word means all these different things.<\/p>\n If the Word of God is God\u2019s act, God\u2019s thing, God\u2019s presence himself, it doesn\u2019t just have the connotation of an intellectual thing or a verbal word. It means a disclosure, a kind of total disclosure. Therefore we would believe that God\u2019s total disclosure, his ultimate act\u2014God, when we speak about \u201cdoing your thing\u201d? Well, God does his thing<\/em> on the Cross. The Cross is God\u2019s thing. That\u2019s<\/em> what God does in the midst of the earth.<\/p>\n By the way, we even sing that way on the festival of the Cross. The prokeimenon from the psalter is, \u201cGod has worked<\/em> salvation in the midst of the earth.\u201d That working salvation in the midst of the earth is when He is lifted upon the Cross, when He is crucified. That\u2019s the ultimate, definitive, absolute, total, perfect, unsurpassable act, word, revelation, manifestation of God.<\/p>\n In fact, we teach that beyond the Cross there\u2019s nothing God can do.<\/strong> Beyond the Cross, there\u2019s nothing God can say. That beyond the Cross, there\u2019s nothing more to be revealed, nothing more that can be known, at least within the context of this world. The Cross tells it all, and if we can\u2019t understand and see the deepest mysteries of God and of our life in the Cross, we\u2019re not going to see it anywhere. There\u2019s no \u201cwhere\u201d we\u2019re going to see it. The fool says in his heart there is no God, because if you cannot see God crucified, you ain\u2019t gonna see Him anywhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n John Chrysostom has a sermon where people say, \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t God do something?\u201d And he says, \u201cWhat do you want Him to do<\/em>?\u201d And then he went through this whole litany of everything that God does: He creates the world, we fall. He sends the prophets. He gives the Law, He does this. He gives the commandments. Finally, He sends His own Son. Ultimately, He is crucified. What more is<\/em> there? So when Jesus, hanging on the Cross, says, \u201cIt is fulfilled<\/em>\u2014tetelestai<\/em>,\u201d sometimes translated, \u201cIt is finished,\u201d it doesn\u2019t simply mean it\u2019s the end of the story. It means that it\u2019s the total accomplishment of everything<\/em>. Everything now is done. Nothing more can be done.<\/p>\n This Cross, then, which is contemplated, meditated, envisioned, enacted in our midst, ultimately\u2014and I think this is very important to mention also\u2014it is God\u2019s word to those who have ears and are willing to hear, because the fool is exactly the one, in biblical language, who has eyes and doesn\u2019t want to see, who has ears and doesn\u2019t want to hear, who has a mind and refuses to understand. If, to use that line that Jesus often uses in the Gospel, \u201che who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has eyes to see, let him see.\u201d So we have to pray to God, that He would give us ears to hear, eyes to see, minds willing to penetrate that mystery, to open up to that mystery in order to see what it is that God is showing us, what God is telling us, what He\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n The Word of the Cross is ultimately silent.<\/strong> When Jesus hangs on the Cross, crucified, He\u2019s already dead, and therefore He is totally quiet. We all know that when Jesus was hanging on the Cross, He said a few things. He said seven different things, actually, and if you\u2019re interested in that, we can talk about that, but we\u2019re not talking today about the words from<\/em> the Cross. We\u2019re talking about the Word of the Cross itself, and the Word of the Cross itself is enacted and spoken when He gives up his spirit and He dies.<\/p>\n That, according to the Church tradition, certainly some of the homilies of the Church Fathers, is the most eloquent word ever spoken. The most eloquent word ever spoken is spoken in silence<\/strong>. You just look at Him hanging there, because you can\u2019t say<\/em> it. There\u2019s nothing that could be said. In fact, one Western saint\u2014Hugo, I think it was, of St. Victor\u2014he said that God wants to speak to us, to reveal himself to us, and He gives us the Scriptures, He gives us the book. He says, but when Christ is coming, the incarnate Book, the incarnate Word, then you no longer have words; you have the living thing, and the real and present life.<\/p>\n Then he said, \u201cAnd when He hangs on the Cross and His arms are open, the Book is open. The Book is totally open, like in the book of Revelation you have the book sealed with seven seals, and the only one who opens that seven-sealed book\u2014and that means the super-duper mysteries; that\u2019s what seven seals means; you don\u2019t get more mysterious than that, you see\u2014but who is worthy to open the book? In the book of Revelation, it\u2019s the Lamb who was slain. Everybody\u2019s crying, it says, because there\u2019s nobody to open the book of the deepest mysteries of God, and then their tears are wiped away because the Lamb comes, who was dead and is alive again, who was crucified\u2014and He opens the book.<\/p>\n This Hugo said that on the Cross, the book is open. It\u2019s open, and the Word of God is fully and totally revealed for what it is. What we<\/em> have to do is to stand before it also in silence<\/em> in order to hear. That\u2019s a very important point, because no one who cannot shut up is going to hear the Word of the Cross. No one who cannot be quiet is going to penetrate the deepest mystery. That ultimate Word, even St. Maximus, St. Issac, they said, \u201cThe language of God is ultimately silence.\u201d Silence.<\/p>\n In the silent depth of the Cross, the silence of God, which is more eloquent than any word, speaks to our<\/em> silence<\/strong>, the silence within us, in order that we can then understand and grasp and live the deepest mysteries of God. That\u2019s why talk about God is only so much blah-blah. Even too much spiritual talk is nothing but vain babbling. We who are in church like this talk. As someone once said, \u201cWhen you\u2019re dealing with what can only be expressed in silence, you have to talk a lot,\u201d because \u201cno word is adequate, and every word is a lie,\u201d as St. Gregory of Nyssa said.<\/p>\n But the word<\/em> can only be the authentic word that emerges out of the silence. That\u2019s why Lent is supposed to be a time when we try to be quiet. We try really to be silent and hear<\/em> God speak. And yet […] you have to make space to do that. It just doesn\u2019t happen<\/em>. There\u2019s even a saying of the Fathers, and St. Ambrose, who\u2019s over there on the wall. His first chapter on the book of the priesthood, he said, \u201cYou must teach the priests first how to be silent,\u201d and then he quoted the desert tradition which said, \u201cFor who cannot be silent must never speak, because they\u2019ll have nothing<\/em> to say.\u201d<\/p>\n Silence is really important<\/strong>, and contemplation, going beyond and letting the Word dwell in us and well around, this is what we have to do. The reason why I say that is because so much in theology today is just people talking all the time, arguing, trying to convince their neighbors, Sunday school projects, preaching, ministry, and so on, and then we wonder why it never works. At least one of the reasons it never works is because we\u2019re not quiet<\/em>. We never just quietly stand in front of the cross and just look<\/em> so we could hear<\/em> something, as though something could happen<\/em> to us.<\/p>\n And we\u2019re so busy minding everybody else\u2019s business\u2014who should do what, what the bishop should do, what if this should happen, what our kids should do, and all this kind of stuff\u2014we\u2019re so taken up with all of that that the whole thing just becomes crazy. It becomes just the opposite of the Word of the Cross, the Word of the Cross that ultimately says: Just look. Look. Shut up; look. And then maybe you hear something, see? And that\u2019s something that we really have to practice.<\/p>\n If we do, though, have to speak and break the silence, what is it that we should hear? The simple answer to that, according to Christian theology, would be: everything\u2014because the Cross says everything.<\/p>\n The Cross says everything about God, everything about human life<\/strong>, everything about history, everything about the planet, everything about the deepest mysteries that are possibly to be known to us creatures. The Cross says everything, because Christ is all and in all, and nothing goes beyond that.<\/p>\n Obviously, if the Cross reveals everything, then you can talk about it endlessly. So on a day like today you have to select<\/em> something to be said. What I have decided to do, especially seeing the list of people who are coming here today and realizing that all of you, I would say, virtually all of you that I know, this isn\u2019t your first time into contemplating the Christian faith and the Cross and Christ. So on that basis I would like to select and spend the time not so much on the meaning of the Cross and the Word of the Cross, kind of theologically, or even, you might say, what the Word of the Cross tells us about God and God\u2019s activity, but I would like to stress\u2014which amounts to the same thing anyway, as we\u2019ll see\u2014what the Word of the Cross tells us<\/em> about us<\/em>.<\/p>\n What does the Word of the Cross say about human life?<\/strong> What does it tell us about how we are to live in the time given to us by God on this planet before we die? What does the Cross tell us about death, which is the central fact in every one of our lives? We may not think it is, especially younger people, with a whole life ahead of them and so on; nevertheless, death is the central fact of life on this planet. It\u2019s the central fact of the revelation of God, in the Cross, and it is the central fact in Christian witness. Death proves<\/em> what we really believe, what we really care about, where our treasure really is. Death is the great martyria<\/em>, the great witness, exactly to the victory of God in Christ on the Cross.<\/p>\n Life and death, our<\/em> life, our<\/em> death, our life in relation to death, is what I would like to spend a very particular focus on today. You can\u2019t do that unless we speak about God, for a very simple reason. Every human being, whether they know it or not, or even whether they like it or not, is made in the image and likeness of God. In fact, we would say, if you know it and like it, it\u2019s the great joy of your life and it\u2019s paradise. If you don\u2019t know it and you don\u2019t like it, or if you come to know it and don\u2019t like it, then that\u2019s hell. Heaven and hell are already in us now, because the deepest element of our being<\/em> is God himself.<\/p>\n We are made in the image and according to the likeness of God<\/strong>, and there is no definition of human life outside of God. We would be very eager to hasten and to add: without the true God, without God as God is, because even Jesus said there are many gods and many lords. According to the Scripture\u2014many of you have heard me say this a thousand times, because it\u2019s true\u2014there\u2019s no such thing as atheists. Everybody has gods; it just depends what they are. Ultimately, the clash is between the true God and the false god, and therefore our true reality and our false reality, relative to God.<\/p>\n The Cross is the ultimate act and word of God, and we are made in God\u2019s image and likeness. Then the Cross is the ultimate word about us, too. It can\u2019t be any other way, and that\u2019s even a basic axiom of the Christian worldview. Whatever we say about God, we say about us, because we\u2019re made in God\u2019s image and likeness. In fact, the Church Fathers even defined human life in this way. They say, \u201cWhat does it mean to be a human being?\u201d They said, \u201cIt means to be by grace\u2014kata charin<\/em>\u2014by God\u2019s goodwill\u2014kata evdokia<\/em>, God\u2019s blagovoleniye<\/em>\u2014God\u2019s energies\u2014kat\u2019 energian<\/em>\u2014[power] of God\u2014kata dynamis<\/em>\u2014that it\u2019s to be, by God\u2019s grace, power, energy, goodwill, pleasure, everything<\/em>\u2014ev\u2019-ry-thing<\/em>\u2014that God is by nature\u2014kat ousian<\/em>. So we are really called to be divine.<\/p>\n If we are called be divine<\/strong>, we can skip over a whole bunch of stuff and end by saying: Therefore, we are called to be crucified<\/strong>, because if God ultimately reveals himself in this world on the Cross, that\u2019s where we reveal ourselves, too. If God fulfills himself on the Cross, that\u2019s where we fulfill ourselves, too. If God is doing the ultimate act that shows his God-ness, His divinity, what He really is<\/em> and what He really does<\/em>, if that takes place on the Cross in the broken body and the spilled blood of Christ, then that\u2019s where it has to take place in our life, too. That\u2019s why Jesus said\u2014and it\u2019s interesting in the gospels, as you know\u2014Jesus, when He first appeared, He did all the signs of the Messiah: He preached to the poor, He forgave the sins, He cast out the demons, He did all the healings: He made the blind see, the lame walk, deaf hear, dumb talk, and so on.<\/p>\n He did all the miracles that he was supposed to do, and then he says, \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d And Peter says, \u201cYou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.\u201d And only then in the Gospel did Jesus say for the first time that He had to be betrayed, spit upon, mocked, rejected, killed, and would rise again on the third day.<\/p>\n Those of you who know the gospels know that Peter said, \u201cNever! That\u2019s not the way God acts. That\u2019s not the way the Messiah acts. The Messiah\u2019s supposed to come in and not get spit upon, mocked, and beaten, but He\u2019s supposed to overcome<\/em> all of that.\u201d Jesus, as you know, even calls Peter \u201cSatan\u201d and says, \u201cGet behind me,\u201d and so on. Then He goes on the mountain and transfigures in front of them and shows His glory, and then on the mountain even He talks about the crucifixion, the exodus that He will make in Jerusalem with Moses and Elijah. Then again<\/em> He tells them that He\u2019s going to be crucified. And in between Peter\u2019s confession and the Transfiguration, you have the famous line that we heard last Sunday in the Gospel. If you went to church last Sunday, you heard it, from Mark\u2019s Gospel, where in Mark\u2019s version anyway, where He said, \u201cIf you will be my<\/em> disciple, you<\/em> will take up your<\/em> cross, and you will follow me.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s just no way to be the disciple of Jesus without taking up our cross.<\/strong> If He is crucified, we have to be crucified. St. Paul uses that expression: \u201cco-crucified\u201d: \u201cWe must be co-crucified together<\/em> with Him.\u201d Co-crucified. St. Paul loves that term, \u201cco-.\u201d In Greek, the prefix \u201csyn<\/em>.\u201d We co<\/em>-suffer with Him. We co<\/em>-reject with Him. We co<\/em>-die with Him. We are co<\/em>-crucified with Him. Then we are co<\/em>-rising with Him. We are co<\/em>-glorified with Him. We are co<\/em>-reigning with Him. But it\u2019s all in and with Him<\/em>.<\/p>\n If this is the central act of his<\/em> life, then it has to be the central act of our life, and there\u2019s no way around it. As sometimes my students say, \u201cThat\u2019s the bad news of the good news.\u201d The good news is that God has revealed Himself to us, raised us up, forgiven us, ascended into heaven, glorified us, given us eternal life, forgave every sin; where sin abounds, grace super-abounds, and no rock, nothing ridiculous, no horrible sin is more than the grace of God. God can forgive everything. That\u2019s the good news. The \u201cbad news\u201d is\u2014and I put that in quotes, of course; it\u2019s only rhetoric\u2014that the way the good news gets enacted is through the Cross\u2014and no other way<\/em>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what the temptations of Jesus by the devil were about.<\/strong> The devil wanted to get Jesus not to take the Cross, and those were the real temptations of Jesus, not wanting little domestic happiness with Mary Magdalene or something like the movie said. But those were the powerful temptations of Jesus as the Messiah: not to take the Cross. Because who wants that Cross? Nobody wants it, but it\u2019s absolutely essential, because there\u2019s no life and therefore no happiness, no joy, no peace, no nothing without it. There\u2019s just darkness and death without it, but through the darkness and death of the Cross, that\u2019s how the life and the victory [come], and no other way. And that\u2019s the Word of the Cross.<\/p>\n What I\u2019d like to do today is to try as specifically as we can to apply that to our life.<\/p>\n What does it mean to take up the Cross?<\/strong> What does it mean to be co-crucified with Christ? What does it mean to fulfill oneself as a person made in the image and likeness of God, who is love, who fulfills him<\/em>self\u2014\u201cIt is fulfilled\u201d\u2014by hanging, dead, on the Cross? What does that mean?<\/p>\n First of all, the simple essential point, to kind of reduce it to its bare essence, would be to say this: It is to love. Everything is summed up in that one word: love. God is love<\/strong>. That\u2019s the shortest definition of God in the Bible: God is love. And God, as love, God being love, is what is revealed in the Cross. The Cross reveals who God is and why<\/em> we say God is love, and therefore reveals what love is. Now, that\u2019s also very important for us today, because not only does everybody talk about God, and any coincidence to the real God is coincidental\u2026 Some of those TV preachers, when they say \u201cGod,\u201d I don\u2019t know what god they\u2019re talking about, but it ain\u2019t the one we<\/em> contemplate, hanging on the Cross.<\/p>\n So you can say \u201cGod,\u201d and it can mean anything. Some people say, \u201cOh, it doesn\u2019t matter what you believe, as long as you believe in God.\u201d But what<\/em> God? How<\/em> God? What does God do? Those are very important questions, the answer of which for us is given in the Cross, and all theology is about the Cross.<\/p>\n The Word of the Cross is the Word about God<\/strong>; the Logos tou Theou<\/em> is the Logos tou Stavrou<\/em>. The Word of God is the Word of the Cross. It tells us who God<\/em> is, but if we say, \u201cGod is love<\/em>,\u201d then the Cross tells us what love<\/em> is, and that\u2019s very important, because everybody\u2019s a lover.<\/p>\n Who doesn\u2019t want to love? Everybody wants to love. You see it on the stop sign: \u201cMake love, not war,\u201d \u201cAll you need is love.\u201d Everyone will tell you they\u2019re for love. Dr. Ruth is for love. I mean, who\u2019s not for love? Who would be not for love, at least rhetorically? Who would get up and say, \u201cI\u2019m for hate; I\u2019m for death\u201d? No one.<\/p>\n But the problem is: What is love?<\/strong> That\u2019s the question. If I\u2019m for love, what is love? If I\u2019m for God who is love, who is that God who is love, and therefore what is love? If I find and fulfill myself as in the image and likeness of God who is love\u2026 Thomas Merton who was a famous monk said, \u201cTo know that we are made in the image and likeness of God who is love is enough knowledge to last us endless eternities.\u201d You don\u2019t need any more information. That\u2019s enough. If you go on a need-to-know basis, that\u2019s all you need to know: that we\u2019re made in the image and likeness of God, who is love. But what you also need to know is that the love is realized and manifested and actualized and shown for what it is on the wood of the Cross and nowhere else. Ultimately, definitively, absolutely, that\u2019s where it\u2019s shown what it is.<\/p>\n So if we say, \u201cI want to find and fulfill myself in the image and likeness of God who is love, I\u2019ve got, then, to do what God does.\u201d Now, you can say, \u201cHow can I do what God does<\/em>? Isn\u2019t that like saying too much?\u201d And the answer is: no, it\u2019s not. Not if you read the Gospel, because the whole Gospel is saying exactly this: We are made in the image and likeness of God, to be and to do what God does. And that\u2019s not a teaching of Greek patristics; that\u2019s a teaching of the New Testament.<\/p>\n When Jesus Christ said, \u201cA new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you<\/em>,\u201d<\/strong> he was talking about the Cross, because how do we love as He has loved? There\u2019s only one way: the Cross. But that\u2019s a commandment<\/em>! The command to love one\u2019s God with all one\u2019s heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love one\u2019s neighbor; that\u2019s the old commandment. What that means<\/em> is shown in Christ, and that\u2019s why He says, \u201cThe new<\/em> commandment I give you is not just to love one another, and you figure out what love is. No. The new commandment is to love one another as I<\/em> have loved you<\/em>. That\u2019s the new commandment.<\/p>\n So we would ask the question: How does He love us? In what consists His love, so that I can know what I have to do? Because Jesus said, very often, \u201cHe who believes in me will do the work that I do, greater works than these, do.\u201d He said, \u201cBe perfect, as God in heaven is perfect. Be merciful as God is merciful.\u201d This is what He commanded of us. That\u2019s why He came<\/em>: so that we could do it<\/em>, by His power and spirit.<\/p>\n But what is the it<\/em>? What is this love? Simply, again, as simply as we can, it would be total and absolute fidelity to God in all<\/em> circumstances without exception. No idolatry. No other gods. Trusting God absolutely in all circumstances without exception. And in the midst of trusting God, and we prove our love for God by our trust for God, our obedience to God\u2014\u201cIf you love me, you will keep my commandments,\u201d Christ says\u2014that this love of God in all circumstances is to have as the content of one\u2019s life only the wisdom and the power of God, and not any earthly wisdom and certainly not any earthly power.<\/p>\n The wisdom and the power of God is<\/em> the power of love<\/strong>, and that is the Truth itself. The Truth of God, the Truth of Christ, Christ as the Truth, as the Life, is telling us that we can trust God in everything<\/em>, through everything<\/em>, but trusting<\/em> it means doing it His<\/em> way and not our<\/em> way. And His<\/em> way\u2014and this is what love is<\/em>\u2014is constant mercy, constant forgiveness, no condemnation of anyone for anything. \u201cFather, forgive them.\u201d Not giving in in the least<\/em> way to evil by evil, and enduring, even unto death, even unto a horrid death on the cross, anything that the evil could produce\u2014without producing the evil in return.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why, if you translate the Word of the Cross into commandments, you have the Sermon on the Mountain. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right. Blessed are those whose heart is pure. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those [who] abuse you. They smash you on the one cheek; you give them the other. They ask you for your shirt; you give them your coat. Now, you know that, but the problem is this is madness as far as this world is concerned. This is totally scandalous and completely moronic behavior. The only trouble is, that\u2019s the Word of the Cross, and it\u2019s the only thing that works<\/em>. It\u2019s the only thing that works<\/em>.<\/p>\n If we\u2019re a pragmatic American society, we should be interested in what works<\/em>.<\/p>\n This is the only thing that works<\/em>.<\/strong> Works for what? And here we might even be super-duper American\u2014works for happiness. Works for joy. Works for peace. Works for self-dignity. Works for proper self-esteem. Works for being able to stand on two feet and look at anybody<\/em>. Works to know<\/em>, ultimately, who<\/em> we are and what we have been created for. It\u2019s the only thing that works. Nothing else works.<\/strong> Earthly power doesn\u2019t work. Earthly pleasure doesn\u2019t work. Earthly prestige doesn\u2019t work. Earthly position doesn\u2019t work. Earthly profits don\u2019t work. Earthly possessions don\u2019t work. That\u2019s all madness; that\u2019s madness. It\u2019s a lie of the devil. It doesn\u2019t work<\/em>.<\/p>\n If you want the living proof, just look at American society today: it doesn\u2019t work<\/em>. That\u2019s why half the people are crazy and the other half are drug addicts, sex addicts, I don\u2019t know what, even religion addicts. They come to retreats on Saturdays\u2026 [laughter] No. When the sun is shining\u2026 It doesn\u2019t work. Then you go looking for all kinds of things to somehow make it work. Of course, life is limited, so sooner or later you run out of time and conk off and die, and that doesn\u2019t work either.<\/p>\n What the Cross is telling us is this:<\/strong> If you want to live\u2014and it\u2019s very interesting how Jesus uses that expression, \u201clive.\u201d Not just find the meaning of life, the purpose of life, the goal of life, but live<\/em>. He said, \u201cI have come that you may have life, and life in abundance.\u201d And He said that exactly in the context when He said, \u201cI am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.\u201d He said in the Sermon on the Mountain, \u201cThe way is narrow and hard. The gate is narrow; the way is hard, that leads to life<\/em>, and few there be who find it.\u201d Because there [are] few who really want what God wants and are willing to trust Him to the end, who are willing to say, when they feel totally abandoned, \u201cMy God, my God, why hast thou<\/em> abandoned me? Yet into your<\/em> hands I give my spirit,\u201d and then emerge victorious.<\/p>\n It\u2019s life<\/em> that we want, not just existence, not just survival<\/strong>, not just coping with the world, but we want to live. In fact, I used to always make jokes and they say, \u201cSurviving,\u201d how awful it is. I\u2019ve stopped doing that, because even surviving ain\u2019t bad in America now, because if you don\u2019t survive, then you\u2019ll never come to live. So the first thing is, figure out how to survive; then we\u2019ll talk about living. But that\u2019s about how bad it is.<\/p>\n The answer to all of this is God who is love that is revealed in the Cross, and [us] taking up that Cross together with Him, because what we believe in the Cross from God\u2019s side is that God tells us on the Cross many things. He tells us that He loves us and loves us and loves us to the end, and our whole life is defined by His love for us. The content<\/em> of our life is His love for us<\/strong>. That we can never escape His love for us. That even hell will be the futile attempt to even try<\/em> to escape His love for us, because He chases us even into hell. He takes the hell on himself on the Cross, becoming sin, becoming curse, becoming dead\u2014for us, not for himself. He didn\u2019t need that. For us. So He tells us that we are loved, and that\u2019s the foundational metaphysical reality for sane existence. We are insane if we do not know in our gut<\/em> that we are loved, and we are loved by God. By God! And there\u2019s nothing<\/em> that we can do<\/em> that will stop<\/em> the love of God for us. That\u2019s what the Cross tells us.<\/p>\n However sinful, stupid, ridiculous, criminal, I don\u2019t know, the Auschwitzes, the gulags, the abortion centers, I don\u2019t know what, of this world, will not stop<\/em> the love of God for us. He takes it all<\/em> on himself. He identifies with it all. And all we have to do is want it, say yes to it, and then it\u2019ll become ours, and it\u2019ll work in us. There\u2019s nothing we can do to respond to it. We can only take it, receive it, say Amen to it. But that being loved, boundlessly and unconditionally, this is what the Cross is telling us. As I said earlier, whether we like it or not, we are loved<\/em>.<\/p>\n One of the hardest things to do in life, because of our human pride, because of our rebellion against God, much harder almost than loving, is to allow ourselves to be<\/em> loved, to let God love us, to let godly people<\/em> love us. But this love of God is what the Word of the Cross is: boundless, unconditional love from God\u2019s side.<\/p>\n How is that love expressed?<\/strong> It\u2019s expressed not in denying the sin of the world, not saying, \u201cOh, you\u2019re nice anyway.\u201d I heard a tape the other day of a Methodist named Stanley Hauerwas\u2014highly recommended\u2014and he said, \u201cI\u2019m a Methodist. We Methodists have deep belief in God. We believe God is nice<\/em>.\u201d Then he said, \u201cAnd that has heavy implications. We should be nice, too.\u201d But it\u2019s not just being nice<\/em>. And one of the things about being nice<\/em>, people think one of the things about being nice<\/em> is never to say that anything\u2019s wrong. Never to admit that there\u2019s real evil, real sin, real tragedy; we just kind of \u201cpretend\u201d it\u2019s not there, put it away. But God doesn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n The Cross tells us that this world is stinking, rotten, evil. That\u2019s what it tells us. That the world isn\u2019t nice<\/em>\u2014exactly. That the world hates<\/em> light, hates<\/em> love, hates<\/em> truth, hates<\/em> justice, and when that all comes incarnate the presence of Jesus the Messiah, they say he\u2019s a Samaritan and has a devil and they\u2019ve got to get rid of him. It\u2019s not nice.<\/p>\n God doesn\u2019t deny all that. He doesn\u2019t look down and say, \u201cOh, you\u2019re really nice<\/em>.\u201d He doesn\u2019t. He says, \u201cYou\u2019re all sinners, rotten, and there\u2019s no, not one righteous, no, not one, but I love you anyway. And to prove that I love you anyway, I take all your rot on myself.\u201d And that\u2019s what love is. Love is to identify with the one who\u2019s really bad<\/em>, really<\/em> evil.<\/p>\n One of the things that we\u2019re going to talk about is: if we\u2019re going to imitate God in that, we have to admit<\/em> the evil<\/em> that\u2019s around. Some people have a very hard time admitting evil around, in themselves and in other people, and in other people as well as themselves, especially their family members. Other people are only too happy to admit evil around, in everybody! Sometimes even themselves: \u201cI\u2019m a sinner!\u201d All right, that\u2019s part of it. But the admission has to be there.<\/p>\n But then the Cross says, \u201cYou must<\/em> admit it. You must<\/em> say: \u2018It is no good. It is not God\u2019s way. Things are not right.<\/em> There is evil. There is the devil. There is sin. There is death.\u201d And these things have to be faced<\/em>. They can\u2019t be cosmetized over, stuck in a corner. People get sick. People have cancer. People die. Airplanes crash. People blow them up. People get thrown out of their countries. People get victimized by other people. They get victimized by the sin of their parents. They get victimized by all kinds of stuff, and all that is real<\/em>. And God on the Cross faces all that and says it\u2019s real<\/em>.<\/p>\n And when He faces it and says it\u2019s real<\/em>, He weeps<\/em> over it. He grieves<\/em> over it. He is appalled<\/em> by it. But<\/em> He is not victimized or paralyzed by it, and he doesn\u2019t let it poison him<\/em>. So no matter how bad it is\u2014and it\u2019s as bad as you can get, especially if you\u2019re crucifying the Son of glory\u2014and according to St. Paul, any sin crucifies again the Lord of glory, because that\u2019s why he came\u2026 So it\u2019s as bad as it can get, but being however bad it can get, he says, \u201cYou\u2019re forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike it or not, you\u2019re forgiven.\u201d Proud people don\u2019t like to be forgiven. In fact, proud people would rather burn in hell and think they deserve it than to [hear] \u201cYou\u2019re forgiven.\u201d \u201cMe, forgiven? For what?\u201d But the forgiveness is there, and, more than the forgiveness, is the identification, the baring of the burden of the sin of the other, without acting in an evil way in return. This is what the Word of the Cross tells us.<\/p>\n And that the only way that you will redeem the other, the only way that you will help to heal the other, the only way that you can expiate the sin of the other, is to take it on yourself, but not in a sick way, not in the \u201cOh, I\u2019m suffering<\/em> for the other\u201d way, but in a way of sovereign freedom, in total dignity, in an absolutely voluntary act of love, so that it\u2019s literally impossible that the evil will be victorious. It can\u2019t be<\/em> because you don\u2019t give it an inch<\/em>. And one of the ways that you don\u2019t give it an inch is not by denying it, but by disclosing it, by seeing it for what it is<\/em>. That\u2019s why the Cross is the great clarification. The Cross is the great illumination<\/em> of things the way they really are.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n