The Glorious Way
Ash Wednesday. Fr Richard Joseph Ounsworth preaches on the glory of the Cross.
As we begin our Lenten journey, let us fix our eyes firmly on the goal: the pilgrimage upon which we embark over the coming weeks is a journey to the Cross. And this means that it is a journey to glory.
It seems strange to speak of the Cross as something glorious, and yet St John’s Gospel shows very clearly that Christ spoke of it as the supreme moment of the revelation of his glory. ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified… And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? But for this purpose I have come to this hour’ (John 12:23, 27). That it to say, it is as he hangs upon the Cross in total vulnerability and defencelessness that he most definitively reveals his divine identity, ‘glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14).
The Cross is the light shining in the darkness, drawing to it those who are of the light, while those who are of the darkness creep away into the shadows (cf. John 3:19-21). But to come to the light, drawn to it as we are, is to take up our own cross and walk with him, it is to be willing to be nailed up alongside Christ, as St Paul reminds us: ‘I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’ (Galatians 2:19f); when he write a couple of sentences later in the same letter that ‘It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified (3:1), he cannot mean that the Galatians literally saw the crucifixion, or indeed that they had seen a drawing of it (although the Greek word might mean this, it is hard to think that St Paul would mean this literally); rather, he proposes himself as a picture of the Crucified One.
Well, then, this is what we are being invited to do today. Our second reading tells us that we are to be ‘ambassadors for Christ’, and this means that the glory of the Cross must shine in us and through us. In the ancient world, of course, an ambassador would wish to represent his king by dressing in the most splendid robes, carrying himself with the greatest possible dignity; even today, ambassadors are addressed as ‘Your Excellency’ and live in rather splendid homes, are driven in limousines and attended upon by a host of courtiers. Our ambassadorship is of a different nature because our idea of glory is different.
What is the glory of this world? It is high repute, fame and honour; it is wealth and power and splendour. What is the glory of the Crucified? Revealed by a naked man, his skin torn open by savage tortures, his face covered in the blood that drips down from his cruel and mocking crown, it is vulnerability and weakness. It is the open-armed love that says, ‘I place myself into your hands: do with me what you will’.
And so, the Lenten observances upon which we now embark are there to school us in the virtues of faith, hope and – above all – charity, that perfect love which drove Christ to the Cross. By prayer, we entrust ourselves and our needs to our heavenly Father, confident that he will give us the answer that is truly best for us. By fasting, we raise our eyes beyond the things of this world to the higher, heavenly realities for which we hope. By works of mercy, we train ourselves in the authentic love which is always manifested in service.
Yet, as Christ warns us in today’s Gospel, even these observances can be warped, bent to the service of evil rather than good, if they become a source of pride, of boasting, or of self-satisfaction. Such is the insidious power of sin that even piety can become part of that false glory that leads us away into the darkness. How to avoid this danger? Perhaps by imitating the tax collector in Christ’s parable, who stands quietly, head bowed, and says ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner’ (Luke 18:13). To keep the need for forgiveness ever at the forefront of our minds is to open ourselves to the transforming power of God’s mercy, and if we allow him to, he will transform us into the image of his Son, crucified, risen and glorified.
Readings: Joel 2:12-18 | 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 | Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
Image source: pxhere.com
