Holy Cross Day

 Holy Cross Day 9-14-2020


Today (Sept 14) is Holy Cross Day in the Ecclesial Calendar.

The older, traditional understanding of the Cross (death of Christ) is sometimes referred to as the Augustinian tradition. It goes like this: Humans have “fallen” from their innocent, perfect condition through sin. God is angry at human rebellion. He needs to be appeased. Christ’s death on the cross is the only appeasement available. Christ’s death does in fact cancel the wrath of God and makes union with God assessable again. Christ is the expiation for human sin. His blood is the sign of his sacrifice. This is sort of a “feudal” paradigm of salvation. God’s honor must be won back.

Another tradition views Christ’s death as the “victory” over the power of sin, evil, and death. The Cross is the sign of “overcoming.” His voluntary sacrifice has power that destroys the existential enemies of humans: sin, evil, death. This paradigm is known as “Christus Victor.” Christ represents God in the fight against evil and wins.

A third, more modern, tradition sees Christ as God’s prophet who stands up against the systemic powers of injustice and evil. He is named a traitor against the Roman Empire and a heretic against the First Century Temple Religious Empire. He is put to death as a political prisoner, executed Roman style. The Cross in this view is the sign of the inevitable conflict between God’s Goodness and Justice and the human propensity toward the love of power, wealth, and greed that results in oppression. The death of Christ reveals the deep truth that God is on the side of justice and love.

Another way of understanding the Cross is as part of the Christian Myth of redemption. The Christ on the Cross is the archetype of the power of self-giving love and vulnerability. It is a metaphor of the transcendent power of Love and the rightness of Love over against any form of inhumaneness. The Cross symbolizes the real Truth of humaneness toward all people and all of Nature. The death of Jesus unveils the might of gentleness and humility in human history. It provides a psychology of vulnerability and softness which reveals the hidden potency of authentic human existence. In this paradigm Jesus may or may not have been a historical figure. But the his story (called the “gospel”) has the power to liberate humans from self-centered concern only for survival or short-term pleasure. The Jesus-Story (gospel) becomes a Summons to authentic living which strives toward the creation of the global family. The transcendent reality that underwrites the Jesus-Story (the Good News) is a real Force in the universe which overflows the universe and pervades the Natural Order of things. In this paradigm the Cross is Sacramental: it is both symbol and more than symbol.

I have not, of course exhausted the interpretations of the Cross. There are many variations within and without those I have described. 



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