The Cross Stands

The motto of the Carthusian Order is Stat Crux dum volvitur orbis.  It means, “The Cross stands as the world turns.”  This is a very countercultural idea today as we seem to be spinning out of control right along with the world and every new idea or influencer on social media. However, truly the Cross still stands as the immutable center of our lives. People simply cannot see it because of the many distractions that blind them and knock them off center.  
            
We have entered that time in the life of the Church that is often referred to as Passiontide, the two weeks before the Feast of the Resurrection. It is a time when we should hold in our heart and our prayer the suffering and death of our Lord, His Sacred Passion. Of course, we have been doing this throughout Lent especially when we pray the Stations of the Cross. Certainly during Passiontide the sufferings of Jesus are highlighted in the Liturgy of the Mass and the Divine Office. It is when often in our churches the statues and crucifixes are covered with a violet-colored cloth that symbolizes mourning over the Passion of Christ. It tells us that something is happening in our life that is countercultural to world as it merrily spins along seeking money, position, power and pleasure. 
 
O yes, for us there is a deep mystery of love that is unfolding!  It is the love of God who became One of us and underwent the agony of His Passion culminating in His horrific Death on the Cross. This mystery is not just an empty memory of a past, over-and-done-with event.  Rather, this mystery is an ever-present, living and dynamic reality that gives life and hope to us who believe that Jesus is alive and with us today and always. It is the Cross standing in the center of our life and in the center of the world whether people can see it and its importance or not.  The place where we stand at the foot of the Cross and enter most fully into the mystery of outpouring of the love and mercy of God  is at the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice.” (CCC #1367) On the altar at Mass the Cross stands as the source and summit of the Church’s life and our life.  

The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council reaffirmed the central place of the Cross, the Passion and Death of the Lord, in the life of the Church and in our life, “At the Last Supper, on the night He was betrayed, our Savior instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood.  He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection…” (Sacrosanctum Concilium #47)

My dear brothers and sisters, as we journey together through this Passiontide with the Sacred Tridium (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) in sight, we know that the Cross stands for us as the center of our life. We believe that the suffering and death of Our Savior is the way that we are redeemed and the channel through which God’s love and mercy are poured out upon us. By His wounds we are healed and through them the light of the Resurrection shine brilliantly on us and the whole world. It is the Cross that unlocks the meaning of life, our identity and purpose of our suffering. Let the world spin. His Cross stands firm as our hope!
 
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh