The Cross: Scriptural Symbols Metaphors for Meaning

A Cross is a most familiar symbol for the Christian religion. This symbol reminds one readily of Jesus' crucifixion, an experience of unfathomable suffering. The very word, excruciating, refers always to extreme and intense pain. However, this most basic Christian symbol of the crucifixion of Jesus is not always understood in ways that are true to an authentic Christian faith perspective on suffering.

The Gospel of John highlights the crucifixion of Jesus in the context of glorification, a theological emphasis that may seem quite puzzling. Obviously, this Johannine perspective on Jesus' excruciating sufferings raises the question of precise meaning for the word, glory. For most Christians, God's glory is associated more with the birth of Jesus rather than with his death. The angelic Lucan Canticle sung for the Bethlehem shepherds is very familiar (Lk.2:14). But to see God's glory manifest in Jesus' cruel death requires prayerful pondering of the human experience of compassion, of suffering with a loved one.

One helpful description of glory is simply the clear manifestation of God's limitless love. Glory can be related to compassionate suffering because the greatest manifestation of love for another person happens usually in times of suffering. We know who our true and faithful friends are because they are with us in most difficult times of our lives.

As we reflect on this experience of a faithful friend's compassionate love in times of suffering, we can understand more clearly why in the Eucharistic Discourse preceding the passion account of John's Gospel, Jesus speaks of friendship in most profound ways. His disciples are called to be friends, even to a the point of giving their lives (Jn.15:13) because they are to love one another as Jesus loves them (Jn.15:12). In this way of faithful friendship, Jesus' disciples will manifest God's love most clearly. In their compassionate ways of loving, Jesus' disciples will be glorifying God. Recent Scripture scholarship has helped us realize more fully how truly human Jesus is and how he lived a truly human live. The crucifixion was caused by human malice against Jesus and all that he stood for. Jesus' experience of this suffering unto death enabled the transforming power of God's love to be manifest in him and through him for all of us as we enter into risen life with him.

What Jesus was trying to help people understand is that sin, which is always some kind of refusal or rejection of love, carries its own debilitating and disastrous effects. God really does not need to do anything more by adding suffering in a person's life. God's only concern is to heal the suffering caused by a lack of love and to prevent such suffering from recurring again.

Human sufferings of all sorts are sometimes attributed to "God's will" for some mysterious salvific reasons. Such distorted understandings of God's will really cause some of the worst kind of human anguish because they prevent a suffering person from experiencing the comforting strength of God's compassionate love. Jesus, God's own Word made flesh (Jn1:14) was sent to us because God loved the world (Jn.3:16), this world in which there is manifold suffering because we do not love one another as God loves us. Jesus helps us see clearly that God wants to prevent, relieve, cure and transform suffering, including the suffering of death. The cross of Jesus is meant to be the symbol of God's glorifying action for Jesus and for all of us, a symbol of God's love transforming even the cruelest suffering into new life.

One of the most puzzling texts relating to suffering in all of Scripture is in the Letter to the Colossians. "Even now I find my joy in the suffering I endure for you. In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, the church" (Col.1:24). This joy in filling up the sufferings of Jesus continues to refer to the countless ways down through the ages that Christians have manifested God's compassionate love, especially in times of suffering unto death.

To grasp something of the profoundly beautiful meaning of this text we need to be reminded once again that Jesus is truly human as well as truly divine. As a human being, Jesus was limited in many ways. He lived on this earth in a certain culture for a certain period of time. In his great compassionate love Jesus really needs us to carry on his work of bringing about the reign of God's love in every culture and in every period of history.

To help clarify the true meaning of the cross in relation to suffering, perhaps we need to highlight Jesus' outstretched arms on the cross, his arms stretched out to embrace and transform the suffering of all times and places. In our times and places, Jesus needs our arms outstretched in compassionate ways for all who suffer. We need to embrace one another in genuine friendship as sisters and brothers in God's own human family. And this embrace will often call for the spirit of genuine forgiveness in the face of real hurt, intended or not. With Jesus on the cross, many times we need to continue his prayer, "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing" (Lk.23:34).

There is one more aspect of the symbol of the cross related to the sufferings of Jesus that has poignant meaning regarding the transforming power of God's compassionate love. Blood and water flowed from Jesus' pierced body on the cross (Jn19:34). From the earliest centuries of Christian history, this flowing of blood and water has been interpreted as Jesus giving birth to the Church. One medieval woman of great prayerfulness, Julian of Norwich, highlighted this faith understanding by praying to "Mother Jesus".

Birthing new life, including new life in the Church, always means suffering. But it is a suffering that truly brings forth new life. In today's Church needing so much new life, may the symbol of the cross take on new meaning for all of us gifted with Christian faith. In all of the suffering involved in renewal and reform of the Church, may our faith and hope in God's transforming, compassionate love be strengthened. In our "filling up" the sufferings of Jesus for his body the Church, in courage and trust, let us continue to "lift high the cross" as we recall Paul's message to the Corinthians. "The message of the cross is complete absurdity to those who are headed for ruin, but to us who are experiencing salvation it is the power of God" (1 Cor.1:1).