Pope: the Cross "is not a symbol", it is "the mystery of God who takes our sins upon himself "
Vatican City ( AsiaNews) - The Cross "is not an ornament", "it is not a symbol that distinguishes us from others" it is "the mystery of God, who humbles himself", who takes our sins upon himself, from which "we cannot emerge by ourselves". "There is no Christianity without the Cross": This was the message at the heart of Pope Francis' homily at Mass celebrated this morning at Casa Santa Marta.
Vatican Radio reports that the Pope was commenting on the passage from the Book of Numbers, where God speaks to the Jewish people who were complaining about God and Moses in the desert. The Lord then commands Moses to take a serpent and put it on a staff and says that whoever is bitten by snake but looks upon it, shall live. But what is the snake? "The serpent is the symbol of sin", as we see in the Book of Genesis when " the serpent seduced Eve, proposing sin to her". However God then orders that "sin be raised like a victory flag". "We don't really understand what this means unless we understand what Jesus tells us in the Gospel". Jesus said to the Jews : " When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM". In the desert sin was lifted up, " but it is a sin that seeks salvation, so that it heals there". It is the Son of man, the true Savior, Jesus Christ, who is lifted up.
In today's Gospel, Jesus warns the Pharisees when he says to them, "You will die in your sin ." "It is impossible for us to free ourselves from sin by ourselves. Impossible . These doctors of the law, these people who taught the law, they had no clear idea about this. The believed, yes, in the forgiveness of God, but they felt strong enough on their own merits, they knew everything. But in the end had transformed religion, the worship of God into a culture with values , with reflections, with commandments of conduct to be polite, and they thought, yes, that the Lord can forgive, they knew, but (they were ) far removed from this all".
"Christianity is not a philosophical doctrine, it is not a program for life survival, or education, or in peacemaking. These are consequences. Christianity is a person, a person raised on the Cross, a person who annihilated himself to save us; who became sin. Just as sin was raised in the desert, here God made man and made sin for us was raised. All our sins were there. You cannot understand Christianity without understanding this profound humiliation of the Son of God, who humbled himself and became a servant unto death, even death on a cross, to serve".
That is why the Apostle Paul, "when he talks about what glory is - we can even say what we glorify " - he says: "Of our sins". We "do not have other things to boast about, this is our misery." But "by the mercy of God, we rejoice in Christ crucified." And for that "there is no Christianity without the Cross and there is no cross without Jesus Christ." The heart of God's salvation "is his Son, who took all of our sins, our arrogance, our security, our vanity, our desires to become like God upon Himself." For this reason "a Christian who does not know glory in Christ crucified, does not understand what it means to be a Christian". Our wounds, " those that sin leave is us, can only be healed by the wounds of the Lord, with the plagues of God made man, humiliated, annihilated". "This is the mystery of the Cross". "It is not an ornament, that we must always put in the churches, there on the altar. It is not a symbol that distinguishes us from others. The Cross is mystery, the mystery of God, who humbles himself, he becomes 'nothing ', he becomes sin. Where is your sin? 'I do not know, I have so many here. 'No, your sin is there, in the Cross. Go find it there, in the wounds of the Lord, and your sin will be healed, your wounds will be healed, your sins will be forgiven. The forgiveness that God gives us not the same as erasing a debt that we have with Him, the forgiveness that God gives us are the wounds of his Son on the Cross, raised on Cross. May He draw us to Him and may we allow ourselves to be healed by him".
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01/06/2015
