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| No cross no crown! |
The cross is the prime symbol of all time and will remain so until the end of time but it seems to be an object of fear among the secular world.
The latest incident involves a group of atheists who are campaigning to have a cross that was erected on the site of the Twin Towers 9/11 atrocity, removed. The cross was constructed from two of the steel girders salvaged from the debris and found already fused into a cross formation.
There have been many incidents of nurses or others wearing a cross worn on a chain or as a brooch in the workplace and even of a van driver who displayed a Palm cross in his vehicle. All of them were subject to dismissal type procedures.
There has been agitation in Italy and other mainland European countries, to have the crucifix removed from classrooms and public sector offices. What is eating at these people?
If the humanists or atheists wanted to put a logo on their advertising and poster hoardings I wouldn't bat an eyelid; if they wanted to erect 3 dimensional logos on their own land that would be fine provided that it complied with planning regulations.
So why does the material world throw a hissy fit when a cross is displayed?
Of course, we know that a cross without Christ is a contradiction anyway; you can't have the cross without the victim. You cannot have Easter Sunday without first having Good Friday. The bare unadorned cross is really a Protestant emblem but, sadly, there are quite a few Catholic churches who have also opted for the sanitised version - no saving victim.
Archbishop Sheen called the bare cross "effeminate" and so it is. Take away the Man and you are left with two cross sections of wood.
There is an old but good story of a woman who walked into a jewellers store and asked to be shown a chain with a cross on. "Certainly" Said the jeweller. "Would you like a plain one or one with the little man on?"
We have moved so far away from knowledge of the truth, in another twenty years most of the educated world will not even know who Jesus Christ is.
The world is drifting away from the reality of the crucified Christ and adopting a format that does not challenge or require thoughts of redemption, suffering and sacrifice.
That is what the American atheists are scared of......the reality of God's kingdom made apparent through the ordeal, humiliation and torture of His sacrificial Son. And that is why the world fears the cross. The world wants success, triumph, self promotion: it does not want to be reminded of the Good Friday element of redemptive pain, suffering and humiliation.
Your reflection reminded me that there used to be a Catholic monthly magazine called "Cross and Crown" which presented a wide readership with intelligent and well-informed pieces on prayer, mystical theology, etc. At some stage after Vatican 2 it changed its name to "Spirituality Today". Eventually it ceased publication. I think there's a metaphor somewhere in there for the history of the last forty years....
ReplyDeleteThe Cross means death. Death is terrible. Death is unavoidable. Death is, in the eyes of the modern world, irreversible.
ReplyDeleteDeath, as GKC said somewhere, is a ruffian who comes bursting into our lives and does what he will.
Totally unacceptable, as our great modern moralists would say.
Chris Wright
These atheists seem to be their own worst enemy. If they don't believe in God then the cross should be irrelavent. Of course the secular society would say "we do not not want christian symbols on public display", or "Christian symbols should not be given precedence of any other symbol". The most common complaint is that they do not want any Christian content in schools.
ReplyDeleteThese people must have shallow, boring and tedious lives if they must go to all the trouble of organising & joining a society for it. They must have far too much time on their hands.
The phrase 'Idle hands make light work for the devil' comes to mind. I mean for goodness sakes. Even if I was not a Christian I would still look at them and thing they are wasting their time and their actions are pointless.