Memorial of Saint Monica

Crucifix in St Francis de Sales Church
in Beckley, West Virginia

For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

I often find myself reflecting on Saint Paul’s “theology of the cross.”

First of all, it is astonishing that Christians would celebrate Jesus’ crucifixion even while Roman soldiers continued to crucify men and women. It seems strange to many of our Protestant brothers and sisters that Catholics honor not just the cross but a crucifix with the image of the body of Jesus on it. But that ancient Christians should celebrate his crucifixion with such intensity even while this form of execution was still used and all too familiar, is almost too hard to imagine. 
As I understand crucifixion was a particularly effective way to suppress dissidence in the subject cities of the empire. The sight of a naked man or woman, likely a well-known citizen, suspended in mid-air, near a heavily traveled road, begging passersby for help – was enough to silence most opposition to Roman occupation. The empire had its faults, as all governments do, but they weren’t enough to stir rebellion among the comfortable leaders.

Dissidents were just trouble-makers and every city has them regardless of the economic, social, religious or political situation. When they were arrested, tried and crucified few would sympathize with them. Meanwhile they brought shame and horror on their fellow citizens who had to hear and see and smell the agony of their slow death. 
There was nothing  beautiful about crucifixion. It was designed to suppress every thought of lionizing the victim as a martyr. By the time he was finally dead, perhaps a week or more after being placed on his cross, the citizenry was glad to be rid of him. 

But Saint Paul and his fellow evangelists celebrated the power and the wisdom of the cross as we do to this day. Only their conviction that Jesus had been raised from the dead and revealed in glory as the Son of God can explain their “conversion” from horror to hope.

The cross is a way for us. It doesn’t make sense in most ways that can be readily explained; it challenges and invites us to contemplation and sacrifice. It silences us with its terrible majesty, just as the voice of God silenced Peter when he said, “Let’s set up three booths here.”  

I understand “stumbling block to Jews” to mean, the cross is scandalous to the pious. It is sacrilegious, even blasphemous to speak of crucifying God. As horrible as Mel Gibson’s depiction of Jesus’ suffering was, I had to notice the incongruity of their leaving a polite loincloth around his waist. The director who wanted to make a realistic movie about Jesus' death, pushing the envelope as far as he could with simulated brutality, would not scandalize the pious with realistic nudity. 

The cross is foolishness to the Greeks. Because Greece was the intellectual center of the Roman empire, Paul’s “Greeks” are those who pursue the wisdom of this world. Crucifixion will never sound like “common sense.” It makes no sense. Why would “Almighty God” who has the power to make all things new and good and right in the twinkling of an eye allow his only begotten son to be crucified? What good can come of that?

We still ask ourselves that question today as we make more mundane sacrifices for our loved ones, our neighbors, and even our enemies. What good will come of that?

The cross is the way in which Jesus leads us. It is still scandalous to the pious, absurd to the wise and delightful to us.