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| Our Loving Saviour |
It is the love of God, that was made visible on the cross, not
condemnation and punishment. He would not ask of us a sentimental attachment
because we see that he has taken our wounds and pain upon him. The Crucified
asks of us a committed relationship to him. Father himself loved the world and
gave his Only Son. The love that we rejected, the heart that we never
understood, he shows again on the Cross. In Christ God was reconciling the
world to himself. Father gave him a chalice to drink he drank it faithfully.
The chalice was death itself, the death that we incurred when we
rejected life. In our darkness we preferred death than life and healing. On the
cross he also showed the horror of death that we may not cling to it rather we
may desire for grace and life.
Jesus was faithful to his relationship to the Father, even when he
experienced abandonment, disgrace and utter failure. His words, “Do this in remembrance
of me,” also must mean this fidelity. It is a growth to that moment when we
approach him just to love him. Being at the foot of the cross is the best place
to learn it. There we do not find a mighty hero but a God probably incapable of
solving my problems. But he is able to
know my pain. At the foot of the cross, we cannot ‘do many things for God’ as
we usually attempt to do. We can just be in silence just loving. In that love we
believe in him, and that bond will be touching the heart of God. Because we
have here trusted a God and loved, not even for a peace of mind, but in a
useless God just for loving him.
Love deeply is a much more responsible choice. It does not base on
benefits, but enables one another to love even deeper. In a normal life, we do good
to be a good person and it does make a commitment and promise of benefit or
reward. How much more is it a responsibility when it is based on love. Here sin can be better understood as loosing
of such a commitment and makes wounds in that relationship of love. If it is
true the pain of the wound itself will ask for re-commitment for a reciprocal
belonging in love even in a moment we are unable to love ourselves. Being under the foot of the cross we must experience, we are really being accepted and loved in the silence and weaknesses of the Cross.
Sin and Punishment is an easy spirituality which keeps us childishness working on reward and punishment. It may have its own ways of
enabling adherence to God. But growing into a responsible relationship to the Crucified
is deeper, mature and lasting. It demands more, our heart.
