THE  CROSS: 

CHECK  IT  OUT 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of Holy Cross is, “The Cross: Check It Out.”

We have this enormous cross here inside St. John Neumann Church, Annapolis, Maryland. I understand there was some controversy when it was planted in this church: some were for it and some were against it. 

The Cross: Check it Out.

Thought: it’s here. Sit under it and see what it does for you. Better: sit under it and listen to what Jesus says to you.

If a sermon is boring – or doesn’t grab you – sit here under the tree of this cross and see what Christ hanging on the cross means to you.

If life is boring – or going wrong for you – drop into this church – or any church and sit under the tree of the cross – and hear Jesus being with you.

SITTING UNDER THE TREE

Does anyone sit under trees anymore?

Does anyone just sit there and meditate – think – lean – grow.

When we were kids we used to go to a great place called, “Bliss Park.”

It had this one big gray barked tree 2/3 up the hill. It was up there on the left as you looked up the hill and just right if you got it for your family on a Sunday afternoon. A blanket or two would be laid on under just under this tree. We would talk. We’d lay down and nap. We kids would roll down the hill in the warm weather. We’d eat neat picnic food. We’d wander to the top of the hill and then walk to this great spot that overlooked the New York Harbor. There was the Statue of Liberty. You could see the skyscrapers of Manhattan – but there was no World Trade Center yet – nor Verrazano Bridge.

When was the last time you sat or laid down under a tree.

Is it true that Isaac Newton sat there under an apple tree and when he saw one fall to the ground he wondered, why didn’t it fall up? “Eureka!” He realized the pull of this body we’re on has a greater pull than all those other bodies out there in space. He realized the reality of the Law of Gravity.

Is it true that the Buddha had had it. He tried the easy path and it got him nowhere. He tried the strict path and that got him nowhere either. So he sat there stubbornly under the Bodhi or Bo Tree till he had an answer. He sat and sat till he was enlightened. Surprise – he was. He came up with the Middle Way – the balanced way of Buddhism. And pilgrims to the major Buddhist shrines in India and Sri Lanka – will find Bodhi or Bo trees - a type of fig tree - to sit under.

When was the last time you sat or laid down under a tree?

In the 70’s I went to a Conference at the Cardinal Spellman Retreat House in Riverdale, New York, right on the Hudson River. It was given by the smartest and most read person I ever met: Tom Berry. 

Talk about long sermons. It took him years and years  of study to put his material together. Then it took him a whole weekend to present: “A New Creation Account.” It brought in all kinds of creation accounts from way, way back – as well as history, discoveries, as well as all the science up to the present day. I don’t know enough anthropology and physics and inner and outer space stuff, but I sat there amazed.

A priest whom I went with to this conference said, “Andy you’ll understand about 1% of what he’s talking about."

He was right. 

However, what I remember was Tom Berry’s opening comment.

Looking out through the clear glass sliding doors that were the wall on one side of the big conference room was a big grass lawn. If one looked further down the hill, one saw the Hudson River. 

Pausing --- standing there at the speaker’s podium – Tom Berry said, “There’s a big old oak tree at the bottom of that green lawn there. It’s been there for hundreds of years. If we all went down there and sat silently under that tree for this weekend – we’d get a lot more enlightened than we’d get sitting up here and talking.”

I saw in The New York Times years later that – that old tree died. 

And Tom Berry died as well June 1, 2009. 

He was called a geologian.

It’s not by accident that the Old Creation story in the Book of Genesis begins by talking about two trees: the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of good and evil as well.

Take and eat from the tree of life. Don’t take. Don’t eat of the tree of good and evil.

It’s not by accident that the New Creation account by Jesus has the tree of the cross. It’s the tree of life and it’s the tree of good and evil.

 TODAY’S FEAST

To understand today’s feast of the Holy Cross it’s important to pull these stories together. To understand the Cross read today’s readings again. To understand the Cross sit under it.

Sit under the cross and look up and see Jesus – and what humans did to him – cursing – spitting and crucifying him – after dragging and pushing him up that hill to die.

Under that cross were men yelling at him and throwing dice to gets his robe.

Under that cross were Mary, a few other women and John his beloved disciple.

Under that Cross we can look up at Jesus and get enlightenment. Answer evil with goodness and love. Put all in the Father’s hands – because all of life is out of our hands. Turn over and over again when others hurt us and are evil towards us – Jesus central message of love: Father forgive them because they don’t know what to do.

Under that cross we can hear today’s first reading – that the crowd was being bit by snakes – and so Moses grabbed a snake – nailed it to a pole and said, “This is what’s killing you – stay clear of them biting and poisoning you.”

That symbol became the symbol of the medical profession. Stay clear of this and this and this – all those things that are poisoning you.

That symbol became the symbol of Christians – stay clear of all those things that are killing you. Nail to the cross anger, yelling, envy, pride, and then hear from the cross: this is what’s killing you.

Under the cross you’ll get today’s second reading – that this is God – in the ultimate emptying of his Godness – to tell us how much God became us – to bring us to God. We weren’t getting that – so he suffered the ultimate emptiness dying on the cross.

Under the cross we’ll get the message of today’s gospel – that Jesus so loved the world that he died for us – that God so loved the world that he sent his son to us – that we might be saved.

CONCLUSION

How to conclude this?

Hope this is not slick or too cute.

The title of my homily is not: The Cross: don’t chuck it out.

The title or my homily is: The Cross: Check It Out.