Homily for February 17, 2008 Second Sunday of Lent
I want to engage you in a little discussion today. Before I do, I want to stress there are no right or wrong answers. It's a matter of our own perspective.
I want to call your attention to the cross on the wall here, and you see that we have on the cross the figure of Jesus. Now, in most Protestant churches, what do we have? Just the cross without the figure of Jesus, so much so that when I was growing up, if you wanted to know if it was a Catholic church, you looked to see if it was a crucifix. And if it was a bare cross, you knew it was a Protestant church, right? What's the difference?
Okay, good. The bare cross emphasizes Jesus is risen, so it doesn't emphasize the suffering. By the way, there is one time in the liturgy of the church when we are given specific directions to use the bare cross and not the crucifix. Do you know when that is? Good Friday, when we come up after the reading of the passion and venerate the cross. The instructions are very specific that it should be the bare cross and not the crucifix.
In Catholic circles in recent years, for a while, though the trend seems to be diminishing, there was a trend to have what is called the "resurrection cross." How many of you have seen those, where the figure on the cross is the risen Christ?
We have one parish in town that built a new church, and they put the resurrection cross up there. It became a real controversy. The pastor of that parish told me he had -- I won't mention the parish -- a parishioner who came to him and said, "I'll pay off the parish debt myself" and it was a million dollars "if you'll let me take down that cross and put up a real cross.” Somebody came in the middle of the night and stole the resurrection cross. Finally they put up the crucified cross.
Now, is it silly to argue about things like that? This is a leading question. When I asked if it's silly to argue about things, I've observed over the years, usually when people say, "It's silly to make a big point about this," what they mean is, "You give up your way and I'll keep my way." I seldom hear people say, "It's silly to make a big point about this, so I'll give up my way and yield to you." Do you know what I mean?
(Inaudible comment) One of the effects of the cross is to inspire us, yeah. I don't want to ask which is right or wrong, I want to ask what it means if you emphasize one or the other. And I think if you emphasize the bare cross or the resurrected Christ, you're emphasizing the resurrection and the glory. If you have that kind of cross, what are you emphasizing?
(inaudible comment) Okay. So the third kind of cross is the gemmed cross. How many of you who grew up Catholic if you didn't grow up Catholic you won't remember this but how many remember when we were young, and on passion Sunday we covered the cross?
(inaudible comment) Yeah, remember that? Why did we do that?
(inaudible comment) So we could uncover it on Good Friday? That's not a bad answer.
But originally it was because over the years, more and more gemmed crosses were there, and the cross became so ornate that its beauty was covered up during the more solemn time.
I would just want to suggest that that cross emphasizes the suffering. That it was a real human who suffered shame and who died for us. It also represents unconditional love, but with the emphasis on how much he loved, and forgiveness.
(inaudible comment) Okay. So Jose was saying in Catholic spiritually we often identify the redemptive power of suffering and our own sufferings as sharing in that redemptive power of Christ's suffering, whereas in Protestant spiritually is more often the glory of the redeemed.
(Inaudible comment) Okay, the reason we have the cross is we never forgot.
I remember one year when I was in Beech Grove, and we did an ecumenical Good Friday service every year, and several of us shared the speaking. I shared a reflection on Christ hanging on the cross and how he took upon himself everything that we're ashamed of, and found in that complete freedom. And one of the ministers who liked what I said came up to me afterwards and said, "I like what you said, and maybe we Protestants need to put the corpus back on the cross sometimes."
Now, what does all that have to do with the readings today? In the Gospel, Jesus goes up mountain and he's transfigured. Where this comes in the Gospel is, Peter has just understood that Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus begins to teach them that what it means to be the Messiah is to suffer and die, and they are having trouble with that.
So immediately after that he takes them up the mountain and he shows them his glory. By the way, the word used in Greek for transfigure is “metamorphosis,” what butterflies do, right? So he takes them up the mountain, and he is transfigured before them. I think in the Gospel that's a way of saying both visions belong together, both the suffering and the glory.
Now, in our own individual life, we will probably prefer one over the other. In my life, it all depends on where I am. There are times when I've preferred the crucifix and other times when I've preferred the resurrected Christ, and it all depends on what's going on in my life and where I am. So collectively we may be in different places, but in our corporate spirituality we hold the two together, both the suffering and the glory.
And every year at the beginning of Lent, the church gives us this Gospel, I think, to tell us that, that we begin penance, but the penance and the glory have to be together; the suffering and the glory have to be together. Or in my letter in the bulletin, I quote a poem as saying hope and suffering go together. Hope without suffering leads to illusion and drunkenness and seeing everything with rose colored glasses. Suffering without hope leads to resentment and despair. The two feed from each other and go together, and I think the value emphasizing the suffering, to me, the suffering Christ today is, there are millions of people in our world who daily suffer shame, humiliation, degradation and hardship for the sake of justice and peace, and it's good to turn our attention to that, to embrace it and to embrace its redemptive power for our world. But it's good also to know that it doesn't end there, but it's all about metamorphosis and transfiguration into glory.
And whichever of those two messages you like, hold on to that, and maybe be aware that often the message I like isn't the one I need to hear, but that it's important to hold the two together.
I want to call your attention to the cross on the wall here, and you see that we have on the cross the figure of Jesus. Now, in most Protestant churches, what do we have? Just the cross without the figure of Jesus, so much so that when I was growing up, if you wanted to know if it was a Catholic church, you looked to see if it was a crucifix. And if it was a bare cross, you knew it was a Protestant church, right? What's the difference?
Okay, good. The bare cross emphasizes Jesus is risen, so it doesn't emphasize the suffering. By the way, there is one time in the liturgy of the church when we are given specific directions to use the bare cross and not the crucifix. Do you know when that is? Good Friday, when we come up after the reading of the passion and venerate the cross. The instructions are very specific that it should be the bare cross and not the crucifix.
In Catholic circles in recent years, for a while, though the trend seems to be diminishing, there was a trend to have what is called the "resurrection cross." How many of you have seen those, where the figure on the cross is the risen Christ?
We have one parish in town that built a new church, and they put the resurrection cross up there. It became a real controversy. The pastor of that parish told me he had -- I won't mention the parish -- a parishioner who came to him and said, "I'll pay off the parish debt myself" and it was a million dollars "if you'll let me take down that cross and put up a real cross.” Somebody came in the middle of the night and stole the resurrection cross. Finally they put up the crucified cross.
Now, is it silly to argue about things like that? This is a leading question. When I asked if it's silly to argue about things, I've observed over the years, usually when people say, "It's silly to make a big point about this," what they mean is, "You give up your way and I'll keep my way." I seldom hear people say, "It's silly to make a big point about this, so I'll give up my way and yield to you." Do you know what I mean?
(Inaudible comment) One of the effects of the cross is to inspire us, yeah. I don't want to ask which is right or wrong, I want to ask what it means if you emphasize one or the other. And I think if you emphasize the bare cross or the resurrected Christ, you're emphasizing the resurrection and the glory. If you have that kind of cross, what are you emphasizing?
(inaudible comment) Okay. So the third kind of cross is the gemmed cross. How many of you who grew up Catholic if you didn't grow up Catholic you won't remember this but how many remember when we were young, and on passion Sunday we covered the cross?
(inaudible comment) Yeah, remember that? Why did we do that?
(inaudible comment) So we could uncover it on Good Friday? That's not a bad answer.
But originally it was because over the years, more and more gemmed crosses were there, and the cross became so ornate that its beauty was covered up during the more solemn time.
I would just want to suggest that that cross emphasizes the suffering. That it was a real human who suffered shame and who died for us. It also represents unconditional love, but with the emphasis on how much he loved, and forgiveness.
(inaudible comment) Okay. So Jose was saying in Catholic spiritually we often identify the redemptive power of suffering and our own sufferings as sharing in that redemptive power of Christ's suffering, whereas in Protestant spiritually is more often the glory of the redeemed.
(Inaudible comment) Okay, the reason we have the cross is we never forgot.
I remember one year when I was in Beech Grove, and we did an ecumenical Good Friday service every year, and several of us shared the speaking. I shared a reflection on Christ hanging on the cross and how he took upon himself everything that we're ashamed of, and found in that complete freedom. And one of the ministers who liked what I said came up to me afterwards and said, "I like what you said, and maybe we Protestants need to put the corpus back on the cross sometimes."
Now, what does all that have to do with the readings today? In the Gospel, Jesus goes up mountain and he's transfigured. Where this comes in the Gospel is, Peter has just understood that Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus begins to teach them that what it means to be the Messiah is to suffer and die, and they are having trouble with that.
So immediately after that he takes them up the mountain and he shows them his glory. By the way, the word used in Greek for transfigure is “metamorphosis,” what butterflies do, right? So he takes them up the mountain, and he is transfigured before them. I think in the Gospel that's a way of saying both visions belong together, both the suffering and the glory.
Now, in our own individual life, we will probably prefer one over the other. In my life, it all depends on where I am. There are times when I've preferred the crucifix and other times when I've preferred the resurrected Christ, and it all depends on what's going on in my life and where I am. So collectively we may be in different places, but in our corporate spirituality we hold the two together, both the suffering and the glory.
And every year at the beginning of Lent, the church gives us this Gospel, I think, to tell us that, that we begin penance, but the penance and the glory have to be together; the suffering and the glory have to be together. Or in my letter in the bulletin, I quote a poem as saying hope and suffering go together. Hope without suffering leads to illusion and drunkenness and seeing everything with rose colored glasses. Suffering without hope leads to resentment and despair. The two feed from each other and go together, and I think the value emphasizing the suffering, to me, the suffering Christ today is, there are millions of people in our world who daily suffer shame, humiliation, degradation and hardship for the sake of justice and peace, and it's good to turn our attention to that, to embrace it and to embrace its redemptive power for our world. But it's good also to know that it doesn't end there, but it's all about metamorphosis and transfiguration into glory.
And whichever of those two messages you like, hold on to that, and maybe be aware that often the message I like isn't the one I need to hear, but that it's important to hold the two together.
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