Today, the entire Christian world has fallen silent. The bells do not ring, and we all remember the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet today, we are not quiet. Through devotion, we experience again and again the events that culminate in Christ’s exclamation from his cross: „It is finished“ (Jn 19,30).
Death was destroyed on this cross of his. This is where human malice, human egoism, and man’s contempt for man, which leads to murder and genocide, stopped. Christ, who did not take offense at this cross, but accepted it out of love for the Father, rose from the dead on the third day, destroyed the power of death, and showed us a way out of the unhappy situation. He who was blameless, who did not commit any evil, like a sheep led to the slaughter, said nothing, did not open his mouth to say: look how you lie, I am innocent, I didn’t do anything wrong, why are you torturing me? The apostle Peter wanted to defend him with the sword, but Jesus said to him: Hide that sword! Don’t you believe that my Father, if He wanted to defend me, could not send angels to protect me? Please put down your sword, for he who fights with the sword will perish with the sword.
Jesus Christ allowed that our injustice, that our sin, that the sin of his generation, egoism, representatives of the politics of the time, captured him and brought him to the cross. Jesus Christ took this egoism on his body. And what happened? This Jesus, who was not saved by the Roman justice represented by Pilate, nor the Jewish piety expressed by love for the Torah, this Jesus Christ was resurrected on the third day by God and made Lord. This Jesus Christ is God; that is the way to love and die. That is love that goes to the cross. And what do we think will save our marriages, our relationships? Who will lead us out of our crises and delusions? The justice of this world, which only frees the innocent and therefore gives us a thousand righteous causes, how to kill an unborn child and not be a murderer? Or perhaps false piety, which, to keep the law, eventually leads to hypocrisy and Pharisaism and puts us in the role of judges?
I know, choosing the cross in your life – even today, as in the time of Jesus Christ – is a complete madness for many and an offense for some sincere-minded people. Pilate also placed Barabbas before the people together with Jesus Christ, and the people who loved the Torah and kept the Law asked to free Barabbas, while they asked for death for Christ. Pilate represented law, and Barabbas represented human justice, because he fought for the freedom of his nation, and at the same time, an innocent person died.
That’s why Christ says, „Take your cross“. What does that mean? If you are destroyed by the sins of your wife, or man, or colleague at work, or you cannot accept the situations set for you by this society, choose Jesus Christ and his path today. Only in this attitude of Jesus will the sin that divides us be destroyed. Only from that cross of Jesus will a new life come, restoring our relationships and giving us the strength to start anew. The righteousness of this world has already buried many marriages, destroyed friendships, and set people against each other, for this world has no power to conquer sin. Sin was destroyed only on the cross of Jesus Christ. Let us allow today through this word that the sins of others on our cross, which we want to receive together with the cross of Christ, will stop.
„O, cross venerable! You are the glory of the believers and support of the suffering, the strength of the apostles, and the protector of the righteous. You are the salvation of all saints. Moses already depicted you when he opened his hands and, with your help, overcame Amalek. All creation rejoices joyfully when it sees you exalted, because by doing so it glorifies Christ, who in his disproportionate goodness through you has gathered all the scattered.