Join Patti Brunner and Truth of the Spirit to gain understanding of the Cross in this Lenten Logos series. A primary tool used to cultivate us during Lent is meditation on the Cross and the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Way of the Cross makes evident that the life of Christ had a purpose more than that of a rabbi or a King. Jesus was those things, indeed, but his life had a much grander plan. As you walk the walk in your daily life, Christ walks with you. As you walk the walk of the Cross you are given the opportunity to walk with Him. Each passage, each stumble, each encounter along the way, points to the love Jesus shows to his Father for those whom the Father loves. We can take these moments and apply them to our own lives. We can apply them to the very history of mankind. For video, audio, and script please continue reading.
TOS061 Lenten Logos I: The Cross For audio TOS061: Lenten Logos I – The Cross – Truth of the Spirit (podcast) | Listen Notes
Script:
Welcome to Lent the season of contemplation! In its wisdom the Church has given us the season of Lent to reflect on our faith, contemplate the passion of Christ, remind ourselves of our need of salvation, and grow closer in our relationship with God. It is a time of fasting, the setting aside of material things, to make room for spiritual things. You are listening to Truth of the Spirit; I’m Patti Brunner. With this episode we shall explore The Cross, the way of restoration.
The heart of this Lenten podcast series is to find Christ. As you begin to find Christ and begin to live a Christ-centered life you can then reach out and change the world. The power within must be recognized as the power of Christ. As you recognize the power of Christ through the Cross you can start to believe Christ’s love. The power of the Resurrection will draw life from your ashes. This podcast, taken from my book, Lenten Logos, is not an exercise for fact finding or for “head knowledge”. It is taken from things that the Holy Spirit taught me about Lent. It is designed to open your heart to understand God’s love for you. As your mind is renewed and opened to the Lord, more and more will Truth be made clear.
The Holy Spirit is upon you, teaching you in wisdom and in faith so you may go into the world and teach others. We thirst for knowledge of God but until our minds are renewed and darkness is cast out we cannot know him. God’s love conquers all. Those that cooperate with the Holy Spirit will come to understand the meaning of life and death and will come to know the Father’s Glory as they join in communion with the ancients in giving praise to the Father.
Turn your face to the Lord. Seek his presence in your lives. Reach out to him in prayer and supplication. Continue to walk in His ways; if you do not know the Way, learn it; if you cannot find the Way, ask for help; if you cannot follow the Way, repent. Grace is a communication of God’s love upon your life.
The word “lent” means “spring”. As we take time to fast and pray during the season of Lent, we allow for the ‘rebirth’ of that which has been perhaps buried deep within us and covered by a season of barrenness. Let us look at this Lent, not as drudgery of sacrifice, but as tilling the soil so that the roots of our Christian faith might put on new growth and bring forth great fruit.
A primary tool used to cultivate us during Lent is meditation on the Cross and the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Catholics who are active in their faith are familiar with the liturgy of the Stations of the Cross. The Way of the Cross points out, underscores, makes evident that the life of Christ had a purpose more than that of a rabbi or a King. Jesus was those things, indeed, but his life had a much grander plan. As you walk the walk in your daily life, Christ walks with you. As you walk the walk of the Cross you are given the opportunity to walk with Him. Each passage, each stumble, each encounter along the way, points to the love Jesus shows to his Father for those whom the Father loves. We can take these moments and apply them to our own lives. We can apply them to the very history of mankind.
You might have noticed that some of the Way of the Cross is not in the bible. Part of the rich tradition of the Church Jesus established is that He gave us the direct eyewitnesses to the events of the New Testament. Some were written down and canonized; other testimonies have been handed down through oral tradition and show up in various church documents. They can never contradict truth, and God allows their testimony to help us to comprehend the revelation to us of his love and the Kingdom of God. This is especially true in remembering the Passion of Christ.
When Saint Helen visited the Holy Land, in the 4th century, she identified the places and events of the Way of the Cross. They lived in the hearts of the people as they walked the walk of remembrance and told their children’s children the stories that were told to them. Signs and wonders confirmed the Holy Places. The tales were then told across the channels and the ocean until many longed to stand where Jesus stood and walk where Jesus walked. The precious Walk of the Cross brought many to repentance and renewal of relationship with the Creator and with Jesus. In the 14th century a liturgy was developed to be shared, taught and practiced. The liturgy began so that those who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land could still recall all the events of the Way of the Cross and, by meditating upon them, grow closer to God. This liturgy continues today to remind us of the steps of Christ, to remind us of the sacrifice, to remind us of the triumph over the very worst handed out by sin of the world as suffering.
On the cross Jesus Christ fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering servant. Jesus, the suffering servant took the role of Cain, the role of Adam, thus the role of the sinner, Jesus, the suffering servant took (2) the role of Isaac, the role of the Lamb, the role of the Sacrifice. (3) Jesus humbled himself before the power of hell on earth and thus overcame that power by accepting obedience to the Will of God. Obedience unto death restored man’s relationship of trust, restored man’s connection, restored the kingdom on earth.
When Adam and Eve chose to sin it broke the spiritual connection between God and man and caused limitations on man’s understanding and knowledge of God. We see how Adam’s sin directly affected the next generation by distorting Cain’s view of God. Trying to reconnect to God, sacrifices were offered by Adam’s sons. Cain’s sacrifice did not please God as Abel’s faith offering did. Cain reacted in resentment and depression and turned to murder instead of trying to improve his relationship with God. Like Cain, we have inherited the effect of the first sin; we are separated from knowing and trusting God. We seek self-sufficiency and live for this world rather than for the Kingdom of God.
The infinity of your salvation met with time on the cross. The sins of the world – for all time – melted into its formation. This cross appeared to be made of natural material: the wood of the cross—the ‘tree’ of life; but know this, it was truly formed by the sin of man. Through one disobedient man, Adam, sin broke the spirit to Spirit connection between God and man. Through one obedient, righteous man, Jesus, life has been restored. We have become the temple of the Holy Spirit through the Cross.
Twenty generations after Adam and Cain, another father and son became important. God chose the son Isaac to be a sacrifice. Abraham, the father, who fully accepted the gift of faith, obeyed God. Abraham’s world revolved around Isaac, the child given in his old age. God tested Abraham by asking him to offer his son in sacrifice. The blood sacrifice was a sign of covenant. God wants us, too, to be willing to trust Him enough that we would set aside that which we love or desire most to deepen our relationship with Him. He wants us to trust Him whatever the sacrifice. Abraham was obedient. Isaac carried the wood up the hill on his shoulder just as Jesus carried the wood up Calvary. God stopped the hand of Abraham and provided an alternate animal sacrifice, a ram. By covenant, since Abraham was willing to give the life of his only son, God the Father was willing to sacrifice his son, Jesus.
In the time of Moses, the Passover lamb foreshadowed the Lamb of God. The Israelites were instructed to take the blood of an unblemished lamb and apply it to the doorposts and lintel, a wooden cross-beam, to allow the angel of death to pass over the household when the 10th and final plague struck the Egyptians. The first Passover meal took place in each household. God instructed them to consume the entire lamb to complete the covenant act of sacrifice. Sharing the sacrifice brought relationship with God. Just as the Israelites were set free from slavery and death by the Passover sacrifice, Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, sets all mankind free from the slavery of sin and eternal death.
It was during the celebration of the Passover anniversary feast that Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb of God, perfect and unblemished. He was a true blood sacrifice of obedience as he freely chose to lay down his life on the cross. “By His stripes we are healed.” Each lash tested the obedience of Jesus. Each act of submission overcame sin and finally death. Carrying the cross, each fall, the greeting of the women, Veronica, his Mother, the help of Simeon—all these point the way for people. (1) Keep going even if you fall. (2) Reach out to help others whether it is your cross or not. (3) Weep not for the Christ but for your children who accept not Christ or his cross. Placing the corpus, the dead body, into the tomb reminds you that this life is fleeting; it is given up to the Father to be surrendered—totally and completely.
We must understand that Jesus died for us. Jesus took our sins to Calvary. And Jesus saw our faces as he prayed at the garden. The world has glossed over the sin that was his burden. Like superman with kryptonite only the exposure to the sin of the world covered Jesus’ power and life. He freely exposed his heart to our sin and carried it within his heart because He carried each of us in his heart in love.
In our parish, a bronze sculpture entitled “The Heart of Jesus” seems to portray the Agony in the Garden and the moment where Jesus took us, with all of our sin into his heart. It depicts Jesus, draped in a cloak pulled open to reveal his heart filled with people. He looks tired and the darkness in his face is distressing to most who view it. Only our sin, the sin of all generations, could cover his goodness. Surely taking our sin into his heart was more painful to him than the beating He was later to receive. Meditation on the passion of Christ reveals that we became one with him at the Garden of Gethsemane. The effect of sin no longer separated us from Jesus. As He took each of us into his heart, as He freely accepted us, our sin came with us. By Jesus accepting us into his heart we were able to die with him, rise and live with him in his resurrection as He overcame death and sin.
As the cross is displayed for all to see the Crucifixion, the foreshadowing voice of Moses echoes through the ages telling us to look; look upon that thing which we feared most! Look at the cross to see death and suffering and no longer be afraid of either. As we join Jesus in accepting the cross, death and suffering is overcome; they no longer have ‘power’ over us. We are set free. The redemptive graces that flow from the sacrificial nature of death on that cross has brought salvation to all generations – to all mankind. Jesus endured each man’s sin/suffering so that once and for all death–eternal death–could be overcome.
Unlike the sacrifices of Cain, Abraham and Moses, on the cross Jesus became the perfect sacrifice that restores our relationship with God. As in the Old Testament, consuming a portion of the sacrifice brings us into relationship with God. We participate in the sacrifice as we consume Holy Communion. We enter into eternity during the mass. Each time we celebrate the Eucharist, we are made present to the Crucifixion and the sacrifice of Jesus as we recall the words, “This is my Body, this is my Blood.” This perfect sacrifice by the perfectly obedient Son overcame sin and death. Catechism #614 reminds us that “This sacrifice of Christ is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself.” … “At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.”
What an awesome gift this intimate connection with God the Holy Spirit must be that our Lord Jesus suffered so much to attain it for us! The Church venerates his cross as it sings: “Hail, O Cross, our only hope.” Amen!
If you would like to read the blog of this episode you can find it on my website: PatriarchMinistries.com. You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit with Patti Brunner. I invite you to subscribe—it’s free! And come back for more. With the Holy Spirit there is always more! Praise you Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice on the cross! Amen
