At the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, there is a moment that always moves me. It is at the coronation of Aragorn as king of the humans. Huge crowds surround King Aragorn, and right beside him are his hobbit friends with whom he fought side by side. When the hobbits, these people who are short in stature, try to kneel in honor of Aragorn, he says, “You bow to no one.” And as he says this he kneels before them, as does the huge multitude. It’s a really powerful moment in the movie because we have seen these little hobbits show their bravery in fighting the forces of evil. Despite their smallness, they were worthy of honor because they were heroes. The right thing to do was kneel before them in respect.
As a seminarian, I had the privilege of traveling to the Holy Land and getting to visit the place of Jesus’ death and resurrection, where there is now a huge church called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As you enter the church, a stairway to the right leads to a chapel built on top of the remains of Golgotha. The floors are glass in some places and you can see the stony remains of the hill where Jesus gave everything for us. The chapel contains an ornate altar called the Altar of Calvary, built directly over the place where Jesus was crucified. Underneath that altar is a hole in the floor where you can reach down and touch the stone of Calvary. I will never forget the feeling of kneeling down and putting my hand through that hole to touch the place where Jesus’ cross once stood. It was moving in the deepest possible way. There I was able to kneel in adoration right at the spot where my Savior poured out His blood for me!
Because of the altar, the only way to reach that hole is by kneeling, but even if the altar weren’t there, I know people would still kneel. There is no other way to correctly approach the cross. We are called to kneel because the cross, as we hear today, is where the Salvation of the World hung. Jesus gave His perfect life for each of us on the cross to pay the debt of our sin that we could never hope to pay on our own. From the beginning, God warned Adam and Eve that death was the consequence of turning away from Him, of trying to grasp at being gods ourselves. And today we celebrate the day when God Himself, who had already humbled Himself to take on our humanity, now humbled Himself all the more to suffer the penalty for our sin, although He was Himself perfect and sinless. So today is a day for us to kneel before the hero, Jesus, the Victor on the Cross.
Jesus could have died for our sins any number of ways, but He willingly accepted the intense agony of the scourging, the trip to calvary, and the three hours nailed to the cross in order to reveal to us the extent of God’s love. It was His overwhelming love which on the Cross more than made up for all of our sins. Jesus took on this suffering to show us just how far the love of God extends–into the very depths of our pain and misery. So when we find ourselves in the darkness and shadow of pain, suffering, sickness and death, we can know that God Himself is no stranger to our pain. He is here to love us with everything He has. Let us take to heart St. Paul’s words from the second reading today, and “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.”
When we find ourselves in the deepest suffering in this life, the suffering of sin, we can know with certainty that even then our Savior is there for us with infinite love. Jesus looks to each of us in our brokenness and poverty due to sin and says: “I Thirst.” His infinite, merciful love thirsts for us to repent and respond to Him. No matter how far we have fallen, from the cross Jesus’ death-conquering love beckons us to rise once again in repentance and be healed. Let us never despair, because He is the Lamb who has taken away the sins of the world!
So today let us show due honor to His victorious love. Let us thank Jesus from the bottom of our hearts for the gift He has given us, the love He has poured out for us. As we approach to venerate the Cross, let us, in our hearts, prostrate ourselves before Him. As we kiss the Cross, let us kiss the head that accepted thorns in mockery of His kingship and repent of those times we have mocked others; let us kiss the hands that gladly accepted nails for us and repent of those times when we refused to offer our hand to those who needed our help; let us kiss the wound in His chest that pierced His heart, opening up the fountain of mercy for all of us, and repent of those times we closed our hearts to God and others; let us kiss His pierced feet which stood firm even in suffering, repenting of those times when we have run away from that suffering which is our daily cross. Let us humble ourselves before the Cross today, trusting that Jesus, in His mercy, will raise us up in His love.
+ Father, thank you for giving us your only begotten Son to save us. Jesus, thank you for the salvation you won for us on the Cross by your abundant love. Let us remember that we are claimed by this love each time we make the sign of the Cross. Holy Spirit, help our hearts to always seek Jesus’ merciful love so that we can be made new. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +