583. September 14, Exaltation of Holy Cross (II)

Meditations no. 512 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Love for the holy Cross in the Church and in the Work.

Faithful cross, O tree all beauteous, Tree all peerless and divine, Not a grove on earth can show us, Such a leaf and flower as thine.

God’s embrace made that dread-inspiring wood holy, and changed into a sign of life what until then had been a symbol of death. The nails united the serenely outstretched arms of Christ the Priest to the arms of the cross. Sweet the nails and sweet the wood, Laden with so sweet a load.

Every Christian is called to love the Cross, since through it Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, becoming a curse for us. As children we learned to make the sign of the cross as an external sign of our profession of faith. In the liturgy the Church uses the same sign on altars, church buildings and vestments and in acts of worship.

To the Christians of his day, living in pagan surroundings, St John Chrysostom said, No one can be ashamed of the holy symbols of our salvation, the greatest of all goods, to which we owe our life and existence. Rather, we take the cross of Christ with us everywhere, like a crown. In fact, we do everything through the cross. When we are reborn, the cross is there. When we feed on the mystical food, when the sacred ministers are consecrated, when any ministry is performed, the victorious symbol is always present. That explains our fervour in tracing and forming it on our houses, walls and windows, and on our forehead and over our heart. For this is the sign of our salvation, the sign of mankind’s freedom, the sign of God’s goodness toward us.

In the Work, we have a deep devotion to the Cross. One day a brother of ours, a priest, told us, Christ in your mind, Christ on your lips, Christ in your heart, Christ in your works, and the sign of the cross filled our soul. Then he handed us a copy of the Gospel and a crucifix and said. Receive, O child of God, the weapons to battle for the glory of your Lord. Always remember that whatever you do must be based on the Gospel and on the Cross.

Devotion to the Cross takes many different forms in our life. We seek and love the cross God wants us to share in, which is symbolized by the wooden cross in our oratories. We seek the support of Christ upon the cross. We are victorious with him. We experience Christ’s marvellous company and love his solitude upon that wood. My children, it is a good devotion for us to go with our arms outstretched to kiss the feet of Christ crucified, which I myself sometimes do because my soul needs it. It is a devotion rooted in humility, that shows our love for Christ, for his Cross and holy Passion.

Devotion to the holy Cross has a deep meaning for Christian life.

The Church sings to the holy Cross, Tree which solely wast found worthy, Earth’s great victim to sustain, Tree with sacred blood anointed, Of the Lamb for sinners slain. All the fervour of that our love can attain is showered upon the symbol of our Lord’s passion and death.

A single drop of Christ’s Blood would have been enough to redeem us. But our Lord, in his infinite love, wanted to go to the furthest extreme. O wonderful Cross, on whom hung the treasure and redemption of captive mankind. Through you the world has been redeemed by the Blood of its Lord.

The Cross has become a symbol of victory to all nations. In anticipation of tomorrow’s feast when the Church will raise the holy wood in triumph, she sings, The standards of the King appear, the mystery of the cross shines out in glory, the cross on which hung Christ our Lord in the flesh.

The cross is the instrument of our salvation, the altar on which the paschal Lamb was immolated, the sacrificial stone of the new and eternal covenant. Hail, Cross, on which Life Himself died, and by death our life restored! It is the Tree that bears rich fruit, for death died when Life died on it. Whereas the tree that led to the disobedience of Adam and Eve was the cause of our perdition, the Tree of the Cross is the cause of our salvation, brought about by Christ’s obedience, and the throne from which the King enters into possession of his kingdom. We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Cross you have redeemed the world.

Christian tradition sees inexhaustible wealth of meaning in the sign of the cross and rejoices in it as the instrument of Christ’s victory. Where does so much joy come from? Is it true that the Cross is precious, that it can be loved, that it brings unspeakable joy? St Bernard asks. Undoubtedly it is so, if one only knows how to reach out to pick the fruit. For the tree of the Cross always bears life, produces joy, distils the oil of gladness, and overflows with the balm of spiritual graces. It is not a wild tree but the tree of salvation. … Why should we be surprised that he can make the cross sweet if he can do the same to fire? Why should we too not find exquisite delight in tribulations endured on Christ’s behalf and taste that hidden manna?

In our prayer today we praise that wood on which Jesus hung, and we make a firm resolution to love the suffering that carrying out God’s will entails in our own life. The Cross on your breast? Good. But the Cross on your shoulders, the Cross in your flesh, the Cross in your mind. Thus will you live for Christ, with Christ and in Christ; only thus will you be an apostle.

The Lord wants us to raise up his cross in ail human activities.

Beloved, Jesus is urging us on. He wants to be raised again on high, not on the cross but in the glory of all human activity, to attract all things to himself. These words from our founder, recorded in an early document of the Work, are a faithful echo of God’s will for us, clearly manifested to our Father on August 7, 1931, while he was celebrating holy Mass. He wrote in his Intimate Notes:

The moment for the consecration came. As I raised the Sacred Host, without losing due recollection, without getting distracted, there came to my mind, with extraordinary force and clarity, that verse from Scripture: et si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum (Jn 12: 32). Ordinarily, when faced with the supernatural, I am afraid. Then comes the ne timeas, it is I. And I understood that it would be the men and women of God who would raise the Cross with Christ’s teachings to the summit of all human activity. And I saw Christ triumph, drawing all things to Himself.

Years later, our Father added: On that feast of the Transfiguration, while celebrating holy Mass at the Foundation for the Sick, at a side altar, as I raised the Host I heard another “voice,” without the sound of words.

A voice that was perfectly clear, as always: Et ego, si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum! (Jn 12: 32). And I understood the exact meaning. Not in the sense in which it is used in Scripture: I am asking you to place me at the summit of all human activities, so that in every corner of the world there will be Christians, with a completely free and personal dedication, who will be other Christs.

In the seal of the Work, the holy Cross is placed in the centre of the world, which it completely encompasses. This graphically expresses the mission of the members of Opus Dei in the midst of all secular activities. Our Lord wants to draw all things to Himself, into his spiritual kingdom of love, making use of us as instruments. From us especially he expects this service and cooperation, so that the redemption, the only true freedom for mankind, may be ever more fruitful.

How can we help make Christ’s kingdom a reality in human society? Our Father told us: United to Christ by prayer and mortification in our daily work, in the countless human circumstances of our simple life as ordinary Christians, we will produce the marvel of laying everything at the feet of our Lord, raised upon the Cross, where he has let himself be nailed out of his great love for us.

Thus by simply working and loving God, in the tasks of our profession or job, the very same job in which he sought us out, we fulfill our apostolic desire to place Christ at the summit and in the heart of all human activities. For not a single upright human undertaking is excluded from the scope of our work, which becomes a manifestation of Christ’s redeeming love.

Our Lady, who stands beside her Son in his agony, shows us the powerful weapon of the Cross. In the words of the Church’s liturgy we ask her, Virgin of all virgins, blest… Let me share your grief divine. Let me to my latest breath, in my body bear the death of that dying Son of yours. Help us to place the holy Cross at the heart of the world.