Good Friday
Cycle B
March 30, 2018
Retreat and
Conference Center at Bon Secours
The Third Cross
About
ten years ago, a Muslim man was visiting a small Trappist monastery in the
Northern African country of Algeria.
This
Muslim and the prior of the monastery were friends. The prior took his guest on a tour of the
building, and eventually they came to the chapel.
The
Muslim stopped and just starred at the crucifix. Eventually, the prior asked his friend what
he saw in the cross.
The Muslim man said: “I
see maybe three crosses here, certainly two crosses. There is definitely the cross in front and
the cross in the back.
“The
one in the front is formed by the extended arms of Jesus. It was created by God and is the cross of
God’s embracing love.
“The
second cross is the one behind Jesus. It
was made by humanity and is the cross of hatred.
“But
it was love and not really nails that attached Jesus to this second cross. And it is this love which keeps drawing us to
him.”
The
prior could see all of this, but he asked his Muslim friend: “What is the
third cross that you see?” The
visitor responded: “The third cross, it seems to me, is between the other
two crosses.
“Isn’t it perhaps you and I struggling to loosen
ourselves from the cross of evil and sin behind, so that we can bind ourselves
to the cross of love in front? Isn’t the
struggle of moving from violence to peacemaking, from hatred to love, isn’t
that struggle a third cross?”
Good Friday
That Muslim man is quite
insightful.
We can discern three
crosses on every crucifix. And by the
way, maybe this is one of the values in having a crucifix – a cross with the
figure of Jesus on it – and not just a plain cross: the opportunity to discern
these three crosses.
We are moved by the first
cross. This cross is Jesus himself
reaching out to us with the love of God.
Then we are confronted by
the second cross. This cross is the one
that we construct out of our self-centeredness and insecurity, out of our pride
and ego, and out of our narrowness and tribalism – the cross on which we
crucify both Jesus and one another.
Good Friday calls us to take
up the third cross. It calls us to embrace
the humility and forgiveness of the Christ on the first cross.
It calls us to loosen
ourselves from the crosses we have made – the second cross. And it calls us to attach ourselves to the
self-giving, sacrificial love of God – and that is the third cross.
I hope that this will be
a helpful way for us to look at the crucifix from now on. And I hope it is a helpful way for us to
venerate the cross here this afternoon.
