IN 25 WORDS OF LESS:

WHAT DOES THE CROSS

MEAN TO YOU?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “In 25 Words or Less: What Does the Cross Mean to You?”

Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. If someone asked you to explain to them what the cross means to you - what would your words be? Could you answer that in 25 words or less?

If someone saw that you had a cross around your neck or had a cross as a lapel pin on a suit or a jacket or outfit - or on a wall in your home and asked, “What does that mean?” What would you answer?

Would the best sermon idea for this feast be to have in our church benches, paper and those tiny church pencils - golf pencils that don’t have erasers - and ask folks to use the 3 or 4 minutes for weekday homily time to answer that question: “In 25 Words or Less: What Does the Cross Mean to You?”

Or what would it be like to ask all of you to go to one other person here in this church and tell that person in 25 words or less, what the cross means to you - and then that person does the same to you?

Today I ask all of you to jot down for yourself - sometime today - on this the feast of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross - what the cross means to you.

THE CROSS FOR DUMMIES

In Barnes and Noble and in any Borders book stores that are still alive - as well as Amazon or books on line, you can find a whole series of Books for Dummies. Is there a book, “The Cross for Dummies”?

I don’t think so, but I sat down this morning and came up with 10 short, quick comments on what such a book might contain - or what you might find in CliffsNotes on the Cross. [Cliff was Cliff Hillegass who started summary notes in Nebraska in 1958. It’s spelled, “CliffsNotes” and it’s one word.]

1) The Cross is the symbol for the Christian - the wood on which Christ died for us - to save us. [21 words]

2) Life has many crosses. I plan life to go this way - and something cuts across it every time. It’s called the Cross - especially when what cuts across our life changes everything: suffering, sickness, death, disaster. [37 words]

3) The Star of David is the symbol of Judaism for many Jews. The Crescent Moon is the symbol of Islam for many Muslims. The moon and the stars are in the sky. Christians believe that one person in the Trinity of God came down from on high to earth and became one of us - became a baby - a human being who lived and died as one of us. So the Christian symbol, the cross, is of the earth - not the skies - but reaching to the high heavens. In the night look up at the moon and the stars. They are beautiful - but they don’t have words coming from them like Christ on the Cross. [119 words]

4) The cross with the figure of Christ on it can be found in many Catholic Churches - perhaps few with so conspicuous a cross as we have here at St. John Neumann. It has great meaning. People when here look up to this mighty cross for help from Christ. This cross might seem too big till someone has a very big and very heavy cross to carry.  [65 words]

5) The cross is a gigantic bloody red  STOP  sign - announcing to the world: "STOP  killing each other." This is the same basic message of the Snake on the Pole that Moses saw. See and stop what’s killing you. [39 words]

6) “Greater love than this no one has - that they lay down their lives for their friends.” [17 words]

7) The cross is a gigantic tree - and sometimes when people sit under trees and ponder - apples fall on them and they discover the Law of Gravity - or  like the Buddha under the Bodhi tree they discover that desire is a fire that burns us every time - or like Mary and John under the tree of the cross,  they hear from Jesus on the Cross that the secret of life is not me - but the other - that we take care of each other. [86 words]

8) The cross is both the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - and the tree of life as found in Genesis.  Seeing the fruit of this tree the message is: "Take and eat!" [34 words]

9) Accepting and picking up one's cross - is a message from Jesus - that  follwing him means to do just that. [19 words]

10) The cross is mystery - never running out of meaning. [9 words]

CONCLUSION

So that’s homework and heartwork for today: “In 25 Words or Less: What Does the Cross Mean to You?”


[772  words]


Painting on top by Duccio di Buoninsegna [c. 1255 - c. 1319]


Picture above # 4 - St. John Neumann Church, Bestgate Road Annapolis, Maryland


Photo of Buddha Under a Tree by Dolores Monti - found on line.