Just to note: The family and I are doing well. We prayed Vespers last night (nothing like singing "Our Lord I have cried to you hear me", with a two year old screaming at the top of his lungs. Then again I am sure that we sometimes sound just like that to God) and Matins together for the feast. It was rough morning though, I think a bit of cabin fever is already setting in. It will be a long weekend I am sure. I pray that all of you are safe, knowing that God through his divine protection is watching over us. God's blessings to everyone.
Exaltation of the
Holy Cross
With today’s great
Feast, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we celebrate two important events in
the history of the Church and the world. First, Jesus own victory upon the
Cross. The moment when many people consider Jesus entered into his lordship.
The Cross itself became his throne as he was lifted up upon it. Through this "lifting
up" he defeated sin and death by destroying their power over his people. Then in
the year 326, the great Roman Emperor Constantine’s mother St. Helena found in
Jerusalem the very cross that was used to Crucify Jesus and there was a great
public celebration that it had been unearthed. There was a great moment when
the Cross was shown or elevated for all the people to see. Then the Emperor
himself had a grand church built on the site, so all could come and venerate
the very wood that held the Savior of the world. Now, lets put this in the context
of history. this all happened 300 years after the death and resurrection of
Christ. By this time Christianity had spread to be present in every corner of
the Roman world. It had replaced paganism as the official religion of the
Empire. The First Council of Nicaea had just happened. This is where the first
part of the Creed we say every Sunday was written by the bishops of the world.
And I think this most sticking and shocking thing of all is that the very
person who had called this council, the emperor Constantine, who’s office of
very recent memory at the time, was consider divine by most of the world. Here
he now was knelling before the wood of the life-giving Cross.
I
often hear people ask the question, “how did this happened”? How did that small
group of guys gathered in the upper room, just 11 or 12 in all, most of them
fisherman, change the face of the whole world? We can easily say its because
the work of the Holy Spirit, and that is very true. We could also add, it was
because the good Roman roads and the many trade guilds that helped make this
rapid growth possible. Is this growth from the very powerful prayer that we
hear from the Lord’s lips in St. John’s Gospel, “Father as you have sent me
into the world, so I have sent them, the disciples, into the world.”? (17:18) I
am sure it is, but I think for us to get at the heart of the matter we must ask
the greater question, “why did this happen?”.
Why did the early Church see the
need to spread the true Gospel message to all the world? They could have just
sat there in the upper room praying and fasting, waiting for the Jesus to do
all the work himself or for him to return. How easy to say, “this is his
Church, let him do it.” But that does not answer the challenge by Jesus given
to his people at all times, as we hear proclaimed in Acts and St. John, “you
shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end
of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Or “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”
(John 20:21)
There are two key events in the New
Testament that bring this question of ‘why’ to the for front. The witness of
the centurion at the foot of the Cross, in St. Mark’s Gospel, and the events
around one of St. Paul’s times in jail, found in Acts. The centurion, the great
Roman soldier, as he is looking at Jesus hanging on the cross says, “Truly this
man was the Son of God,”. (15:39) What he really is saying is that this
man Jesus, is the worlds true Lord. To understand this fully we must look at
the figure of the Emperor and how that relates to what he is saying here. At
the time the Emperor Tiberius Caesar was considered the lord of the world, the
bringer of order and peace to the empire. When he sent out a message or decree
to the people, it was called gospel, good news, (sound familiar?)
because what Caesar says must make our lives and the world better. Now if you
got in the way of this plan for peace or prosperity, you too, would end up
hanging on a cross for the whole world to see. This is the key to what is going
on here. In the Centurions pocket he would have had coins and they would have
had the image of Tiberius Caesar on them. Above that image was written, “Son of
the divine Augustus” in other words, son
of god. See after the death of Augustus, people said they saw him, or
his soul ascend into the sky to be with the god’s. This in turn made him a god
and Tiberius the son of god. What then is the Centurion saying to us when he
calls him, “Son of God”? That this Jesus is the true bringer of world peace and
order. He is the world’s true Lord. Here we stand at the heart of this whole scene
and the message of the Gospel itself, Jesus is Lord, and Caesar is not. Therefor
true power is not from the sword or many legions, but from the love of him who
hangs upon the tree. And this Jesus is now the true King and the Lord of glory.
This goes right into what we hear
about in Acts. Paul is in jail and there was a great earthquake, all the doors
of the prison where opened. Then the jailor comes in and thinks everyone has
escaped. He even wants to kill himself; because he knows that if they have left,
he will die for it. But Paul stops him, and says, “do not harm yourself, for we
are all here” (16:28) and the jailer in great shock at this event, falls down
and asks, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” (8:30) Paul tells him, "Believe
in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." (8:31) We
must remember Paul is in the very pagan town of Philippi, which was full of
temples. Also the very cult of the
emperor and its worship was in full operation, and many other gods where being
worshiped there. What Paul is really saying to this man is that if you truly
want to have peace with God and receive his mercy, you must believe in Jesus as
Lord! You must put away your idols and fallow your true master and commander,
Jesus Christ. Not Caesar. What does St. Paul
say in his great Epistle to the Philippians in the passage we heard today, “Therefore
God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (2:90-11) Not at the name of Caesar, but
at the name of Jesus should every knee bow. He is the world’s Lord, not some
guy in Rome.
This is a large and often-overlooked
answer to the question of “why did Christianity spread so far and change the
world,” because Jesus is Lord! Therefor we are under his lordship and must make
that ‘Gospel’ known to those around us. By challenging the world around us, by
living as his subjects and making his rule known. How much easer would it have
been for St. Paul to stay in his little shop in Tarsus and make his tents,
reading and praying. Believing in his heart that Jesus was Lord, but he knew
that this message is not to be kept secret, it must be proclaimed and even more
lived out. For all people, Jew and Greek, to see and hear. Thereby calling them to be renewed and
transformed, in mind and body to serve the Lord Jesus. This is how God’s love,
peace, and mercy, are brought to the world, through you and me. By our witness
to the Gospel, the Good News, not through weapons and fear like the many
Caesars of yesterday and today, but by the redefinition of power found at the
foot of the cross. Loves power shown forth in blood flowing from the side of
our Savior, poured out for the true life and peace of the world.
Now, I am going to give one modern
example of how Jesus’ rule and Lordship are show forth and brought into action
in people’s lives today. Jennifer Fulwiler, who some years ago came out with a
book called, “Something Other then God.” In this book, she tells the
story of her conversion from a hardcore, lifelong atheist, firm in her support
of abortion and conception, to become a faithful Catholic and mother of six
children. Before she and her husband got married, they both worked at a large
firm and traveled the world. Going to and throwing many wild parties. They were
living together and their great goal in life, at the time, was to be the riches
and most powerful people they could be. We could easily sum by saying, that
sex, money, and power, where their lords and guides. Jennifer’s husband even
says during their conversion process, “that it was no longer his goal in life to
be the world’s richest and most powerful lawyer anymore.” When they got married
and had a child something changed dramatically in Jennifer, she found herself
loving this new child and torn because she could not explain these felling’s by
science and logic alone. She knew there was something more is the world other
then atoms, loves power could not be explained in a test tube. She may not know
it, but she was about to discover how Jesus’ lordship works in one’s life. When
she found Jesus and his Church, their lives where turned upside down and inside
out by it. There desire for more and more from the world was replaced by the
desire for communion with God himself. Sex, money, and power, where cast aside
for, faith, hope, and love. Faith in Jesus, hope in God’s new age and the power
of his lordship, and true love for one another. Jesus was now the king of their
life, and Jennifer knew in her heart that if she is going to fallow his rule.
That abortion was evil, and contraception was wrong. Because, as with all sin, it
become your lord and master. It in turn rules your life, instead of God.
Jennifer and her husband had come full circle. They found God and instead of
mocking his message and rule, they were now firmly living it out, day by day,
and proclaiming its transforming power to others.
This is what the
proclamation of the Gospel, that Jesus is the worlds true Lord, looks like in
action and practice. Lives changed and redeemed one person at a time, and it
works the same today, as it did in Philippi or any other city, 2000 years ago.
Now, the most important question for us to ask yourself is,” what Lord am I
serving. Who is the King of my life? Is it the grasp for more and more power
and cravings from the world.” Are you letting Jesus challenge you by his
lordship every day by turning your life upside down? If not, it’s time to let
it.
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