THE CROSS STANDS

THE CROSS STANDS

Words have an awkward habit of becoming familiar so that when we meet them we say to ourselves, ‘I know you. I don’t need to be told who you are.’ But can we really presume we ‘know’ words or do they, like a knife, lose their edge at times? Take the word, ‘sacrifice,’ for example. We can easily say, ‘I know what that means. Parents sacrifice themselves for their children to get them through their education. Children sacrifice their leisure and pleasure to burn the midnight oil in their studies.’

Well, yes, these are meanings of the word and they show how sacrifice is built into every aspect of human life. There is no sweet without sweat. Parents, students, soldiers, teachers and so many others ‘make sacrifices’ for those whom they wish to serve and help. But I am wondering if we can sharpen this word a bit. Take Abraham Lincoln, for example. He made sacrifices to study. He never went to a formal school or college. He became a successful lawyer and could have settled for a prosperous career in Springfield, Illinois. But he made unbelievable sacrifices to enter politics and serve the country as a congressman, campaigning in all weathers and facing vitriolic opposition. He steeled himself to use every gift he had and eventually people took notice and chose him as President of the country. Then he faced a civil war over slavery and he had to use every way he could think of to hold the fragile union of states together. In the end he saved the United States and abolished slavery. But he aroused such hatred in some quarters that at the moment of his success he was assassinated.

Americans revere him today but many loathed him in his life time. Here we touch the nerve of sacrifice where a person gives everything s/he has for an outcome that is far from certain. At one point he wrote that events were beyond him. He just had to keep going trusting in God that there would be a solution. Here we touch the essence of sacrifice. We do what we feel within we are called to do even if it kills us. But we have no idea what the outcome will be. We have no thought for any benefits that might come to us as a result. We just give ourselves totally.

The bible presents us with an archetype of this when Abraham sacrifices his only son, Isaac. We have the impression that he just does what he has to do, driven by the force of his faith. He has no idea what the outcome will be, leave alone the benefits to him. Quite the opposite: it looks like disaster. Yet this event stands as the apex of the Old Testament and it heralds the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary which stands as the apex of world history. The Carthusians have a motto: stat crux dum volvitur orbis, the cross stands as the earth goes round.     

1 March 2015                         Sunday 2 B of Lent

Genesis 22;1…18                   Romans 8:31-34                     Mark 9:2-10