The Cross Leads to Victory

The time is sundown — that dread day when at excessive midday the solar hid its mild on the passing of Light. The holy physique that was purpled with blood from the dear wardrobe of His facet, was now at loss of life, laid in a stranger’s grave, as at start it was cradled in a stranger’s cave. The rocks, which however a couple of hours earlier than had been shattered by the dripping of His crimson blood, now have gained a seeming victory by sealing in loss of life the One who mentioned that from rocks He might increase up youngsters to Abraham.

In the final rays of that setting solar, which, like a eucharistic Host, was tabernacled within the flaming monstrance of the west, pic­ture three males, a Hebrew, a Roman, and a Greek, passing earlier than the grave of the One who went all the way down to defeat and stumbling upon the crude board nailed above the Cross that very afternoon. Each dimly reads in his personal language the inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

The number of languages, symbols of a wide range of nationalities, provokes them to debate what appears to them an essential prob­lem — specifically, what would be the most civilizing world affect in fifty years?

The Hebrew says essentially the most civilizing world affect in fifty years would be the temple of Jerusalem, from which can radiate un­der the inspiration of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the faith that may conquer the hearts of the gentile nations and make of the Holy City the Mecca of the world. The Roman contends that inside fifty years, essentially the most potent social issue would be the metropolis of Rome, destined to be everlasting as a result of it was based by Romulus and Remus, who of their infancy had been nourished by one thing nonhuman — specifically, a wolf, which gave them their extraordinary power and their would possibly. Finally, the Greek, disagreeing with each, argues that within the specified time, a very powerful world affect would be the knowledge of the Grecian philosophers and their unknown god, to whom a statue, made by human palms, was erected within the market of the nice Athens.

Not one of many three gave a thought to the Man who went all the way down to the defeat of the Cross on that Good Friday afternoon. For the Hebrew along with his love for faith, and the Roman along with his love for legislation, and the Greek along with his love for philosophy, there was not the faintest suggestion that He who referred to as Himself the Way of faith, the Truth of legislation, and the Light of philosophy, and who was now imprisoned by rock-ribbed earth, would ever once more stir the hearts and minds and souls of males. They couldn’t agree upon what would most affect the world within the subsequent era, however they had been all agreed that He whose blood dried upon the Cross that afternoon would by no means affect it.

And but, ere the solar had risen on that third day, in that spring­time when all dead issues had been coming to life, He who had laid down His life took it up once more and walked into the backyard within the glory of the brand new Easter morning. Ere the fishermen disciples had gone again to their nets and their boats on the Sea of Galilee, He who had introduced His personal start to a Virgin now informed a penitent harlot to inform Peter that the signal of Jonah had been fulfilled. Long earlier than nature might heal hideous scars on palms and ft and facet, nature herself was to have the one severe wound she ever acquired — specifically, the empty tomb, as He was seen strolling on the day of triumph with 5 wounds gleaming as 5 nice suns, as an everlasting proof that love is stronger than loss of life.

Fifty years handed, and what occurred? Within that point, the military of Titus struck the Temple of Jerusalem and left not a stone on stone, whereas over the empty tomb all of the nations of the earth noticed a brand new non secular edifice come up, whose cornerstone was that which the builders rejected. Within fifty years, Rome found the actual purpose for its immortality; it was not as a result of Romulus and Remus, nourished by the wolf, had come to dwell there, however as a result of the non secular Romulus and Remus, Peter and Paul, nour­ished on the Bread descended from Heaven, got here there to evangelise the everlasting love of the risen Christ. Within fifty years, the domi­nant non secular power in Greece was not the unknown god made by human palms, however the God whom St. Paul introduced to the Areopagites when, stretching forth his palms he mentioned: “I discovered an altar on which was written: ‘To the Unknown God.’ What, there­fore, you worship with out figuring out it, I due to this fact preach to you: God, who made the world and all issues therein. . . for in Him we reside and transfer and are.”

Fifty years handed, and Jerusalem would have been forgotten, had not Jesus died there. Rome would have perished, had not a fisherman died there. Athens would have been forgotten, had not the risen Christ been preached there. Fifty years handed, and the three cultures by which He was crucified now sang His identify in reward. The Cross, which was the instrument of disgrace, grew to become the badge of honor, as Calvary was renewed on Christian altars within the language of Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

Christ turned defeat into victory

The world was improper, and Christ was proper. He who had the facility to put down His life had the facility to take it up once more. He who willed to be born, willed to die. And He who knew how you can die knew additionally how you can be reborn and to present to this poor tiny planet of ours an honor and a glory that flaming suns and jealous planets don’t share: the glory of 1 forsaken grave.

The nice lesson of Easter Day is {that a} Victor could also be judged from a double viewpoint: that of the world and that of God. From the world’s viewpoint, Christ failed on Good Friday. From God’s viewpoint, Christ had received. Those who put Him to loss of life gave Him the very probability He required; those that closed the door of the sepulcher gave Him the very door that He desired to fling open; their seeming triumph led to His biggest victory.

Christmas informed the story that Divinity is at all times the place the world least expects to seek out it, for nobody anticipated to see Divinity wrapped in swaddling garments and laid in a manger. Easter repeats that Divinity is at all times the place the world least expects to seek out it, for nobody on this planet anticipated {that a} defeated man can be a vic­tor, that the rejected cornerstone can be the pinnacle of the construct­ing, that the dead would stroll, and that He who was ignored in a tomb needs to be our Resurrection and our Life.

Unroll the scrolls of time, and see how the lesson of that first Easter is repeated as every new Easter tells the story of the nice Captain, who discovered His approach out of the grave and revealed that lasting victory should at all times imply defeat within the eyes of the world. At least a dozen instances in her lifetime of twenty centuries, the world within the first flush of its momentary triumph sealed the tomb of the Church, set her watch and left her as a dead, breathless, and de­feated factor, solely to see her rising from the grave and strolling within the victory of her new Easter morn.

In the primary few centuries, 1000’s upon 1000’s of Chris­tians crimsoned the sands of the Coliseum with their blood in testimony to their Faith. In the eyes of the world, Caesar was vic­tor and the martyrs had been defeated. Yet in that very era, whereas pagan Rome together with her brazen and golden trumpets professional­claimed to the 4 corners of the earth her victory over the defeated Christ — “Where there may be Caesar, there may be energy” — there swept from out of the catacombs and abandoned locations, like their chief from the grave, the conquering military chanting its track of victory: “Wherever there may be Christ, there may be life.”

Who in the present day is aware of the names of Rome’s executioners? But who doesn’t know the names of Rome’s martyrs? Who in the present day recollects with pleasure the deeds of a Nero or a Diocletian? But who doesn’t venerate the heroism and sanctity of an Agnes or a Cecilia? And so, on Easter Day, I sing, not the track of the victors, however of those that go all the way down to defeat.

In slightly metropolis a couple of hours exterior of Paris, a younger woman hidden away within the shadow of the cloister was pouring out her prayerful life for Christ and, like her Master, happening to defeat within the eyes of the sinful world. Who doesn’t know of the Little Flower, Thérèse of Lisieux? She who was defeated within the eyes of the world is the victor within the eyes of God, and so forth Easter Day I sing, not the track of the victors, however of those that go all the way down to defeat.

Finally the Easter lesson involves our personal lives. It has been recommended that it’s higher to go all the way down to defeat within the eyes of the world by accepting the voice of conscience relatively than to win the victory of a false public opinion; that it’s higher to go all the way down to de­feat within the sanctity of the wedding bond than to win the passing victory of divorce; that it’s higher to go all the way down to defeat within the fruit of affection than to win the passing victory of a barren union; that it’s higher to go all the way down to defeat within the love of the Cross than to win the passing victory of a world that crucifies. And now it’s recommended in conclusion that it’s higher to go all the way down to defeat within the eyes of the world by giving to God that which is wholly and completely ours.

God needs our will

If we give God our power, we give Him again His personal reward. If we give Him our skills, our joys, and our possessions, we return to Him that which He positioned into our palms, not as house owners, however as mere trustees. There is just one factor on this planet that we will name our personal. There is just one factor we can provide to God that’s ours as in opposition to His, which not even He will take away, and that’s our personal will, with its energy to decide on the item of its love.

Hence, essentially the most excellent reward we can provide to God is the reward of our will. The giving of that reward to God is the best defeat that we will undergo within the eyes of the world, however it’s the biggest victory we will win within the eyes of God. In surrendering it, we appear to lose every little thing, but defeat is the seed of victory, because the diamond is the kid of night time. The giving of our will is the restoration of all our will ever sought: the proper Life, the proper Truth, and the proper Love which is God! And so on Easter Day, sing, not the track of the victors, however of those that go all the way down to defeat.

What care we if the highway of this life is steep, if the poverty of Bethlehem, the loneliness of Galilee, and the sorrow of the Cross are ours? Fighting beneath the holy inspiration of One who has con­quered the world, why ought to we shrink from letting the broad stroke of our problem ring out on the protect of the world’s hypoc­risy? Why ought to we be afraid to attract the sword and let its first stroke be the slaying of our personal selfishness? Marching beneath the management of the Captain of the Five Scars, fortified by His sacra­ments, strengthened by His infallible fact, divinized by His re­demptive love, we want by no means worry the result of the battle of life. We want by no means doubt the difficulty of the one wrestle that mat­ters. We want by no means ask whether or not we’ll win or lose. Why, we now have already received — solely the information has not but leaked out!

Editor’s word: This article was tailored from a chapter from Ven. Fulton Sheen’s God’s World and our Place in It, obtainable from Sophia Institute Press. 

picture: Christ Triumphant by Peter Paul Rubens/Wikimedia Commons