No cross, no Christ

YES, siree. If there is no cross, if there are no sacrifices, no sufferings, you can bet on it, you will never find the true Christ. More than that, we can say that if the cross is not the center of our life, then Christ isn't the center of our life either.

At best, we will have some traces of Christ, if not the fake, bogus one, the bangle and the bauble that many like to decorate themselves with. And these days, I am afraid, there is plenty of this kind.

This is not to take a dark and negative outlook in life. This is simply a matter of being consistent with the teachings and example of Christ, who made the cross the center and focus of his life here on earth.

He said that if we have to follow him, we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. And he himself, the son of God, our redeemer, the source and pattern of our life, culminated his earthly life by hanging on the cross.

Talking about living what he preached, we see that clearly in our Lord Jesus Christ. So, the cross is where Christ is -- for sure -- and with Christ we have our salvation.

Quoting Saint Rose of Lima, the Catechism expresses this point well: "Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven." (618)

It has to be remembered always that Christ's whole earthly life centered and was focused on his death on the cross.

Everything that he said and did, the beautiful and powerful doctrine that he preached, the miracles that he performed, the sacraments that he instituted were all oriented towards the cross.

And from the cross also flowed the power and glory of his resurrection and ascension into heaven, leaving his words and deeds acquiring a divine effectiveness in spite of the weaknesses of men who now are their instruments and ministers.

If we are only good in the doctrine but do not love the cross, if we may be miracle-workers yet flee from the cross, we really don't have Christ in us! We may look good on the outside, and but we would quite hollow inside.

It is the cross that guarantees the consistency between what we say and what we do, between what we are and what we ought to be.

We have to love the cross, not flee from it. We have to look for it, not avoid it. The cross is an essential part of our life. It has to be the center and focus of our life too as it was for Christ, who is supposed to be the way, truth and life for us.

We would be gravely mistaken if we think otherwise. We would be greatly deluded if we think we can have our joy and fulfillment in ways and goals other than the cross.

These days, of course, the cross is not popular. It never was. From the beginning, as Saint Paul himself testified, the cross was some kind of a stumbling block and a scandal to some people.

"The language of the cross may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those of us who are on the way see it as God's power to save." (1 Cor 1,17ff)

Saint John Chrysostom said: "The cross is the sign of victory displayed to fend off demons, the sword to use against sin, the sword with which Christ ran the serpent through.

"The cross is the will of the Father, the glory of his only Son, the joy of the Holy Spirit. The ornament of the angels, the assurance of the Church. It is what Paul glories in, it protects the saints and lights up the whole universe."

That's why the new saint, Josemaria Escriva, lamented over why people stay away from the cross.

My prayer is that we all consider the cross as an integral and essential part of our life, the center and focus of our whole life. My prayer is that we all would be able to relate everything to it, not making a big fuss out of it.

The cross, while it has a special and crucial role to play in our lives, should be regarded as something ordinary in our daily activities and experiences. The good and the bad, the successes and the failures, etc., should be related to it. We have to learn to relate everything to it.

For as someone said: "Once the cross has been raised on Calvary and in the center of history, neither history nor the world can have any meaning independently of that cross.

"At that moment the history of salvation reaches its climax. The great and all-powerful love of God, humbling himself unto death, gains victory over death, over evil and over the powers of the devil.

"This is the mystery of the cross: to live one must die; to conquer, one must perish."