In September, the Church celebrates tremendous feast days. We turn our attention to the Triumph of the Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows. St. Bernard writes beautifully of the power of the contemplation of the wounds of the Lord; it is through these wounds and the shedding of His blood that the “debt” we owed was paid. Saint Andrew of Crete, in the selection for the Office of Readings for the Triumph of the Cross (September 14th) says this:
The Necessity of the Cross…
Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled. Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honourable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation – very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honourable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world.[i]
Saint Bernard in his Sermons on the Song of Songs preaches:
But as for me, whatever is lacking in my own resources I appropriate for myself from the heart of the Lord, which overflows with mercy. And there is no lack of clefts by which they are poured out. They pierced his hands and his feet, they gored his side with a lance, and through these fissures I can suck honey from the rock and oil from the flinty stone. I can taste and see that the Lord is good. He was thinking thoughts of peace and I did not know it. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” But the nail that pierced him has become for me a key unlocking the sight of the Lord’s will. Why should I not gaze through the cleft? The nail cries out, the wound cries out that God is truly in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. “The iron pierced his soul” and his heart has drawn near, so that he is no longer one who cannot sympathize with my weaknesses.
The secret of his heart is laid open through the clefts of his body. That mighty mystery of loving is laid open, laid open too, the tender mercies of our God, in which the morning sun from on high has risen upon us. Surely his heart is laid open through his wounds! Where more clearly than in your wounds does the evidence shine that you, Lord, “are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love?” No one shows greater mercy than he who lays down his life for those who are judged and condemned.[ii]
Let us celebrate with great joy the mystery of the wondrous love of Christ for each of us. Let us draw close to His pierced heart where He invites us to receive His merciful love.
“For raised up high on the Cross, he gave himself up for us with a wonderful love and poured out Blood and water from his pierced side, the wellspring of the Church’s Sacraments, so that, won over to the open Heart of the Savior, all might draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.”[iii]
(Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart)
“Christ on the Cross: Central Panel of the Knappenaltar (Altar of the Miners).” WikiMedia Commons, February 16, 2018. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hallstatt_kath._Kirche_Knappenaltar_Kreuzigung_01.jpg.
Catholic parish church, Hallstatt, Upper Austria; c. 1450
[i] Saint Andrew, of Crete. “From a Discourse by Saint Andrew of Crete: The Cross Is Christ’s Glory and Triumph.” Office of readings – THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS. Accessed September 27, 2021. http://www.liturgies.net/saints/holycross/officeofreadings.htm.
(Oratio 10 in Exaltatione sanctae crucis: PG 97, 1018-1019, 1022-23)
[ii] Saint Bernad, of Clairvaux. “Sermon 61 on the Song of Songs: ‘My Dove in the Clefts of the Rock.’” Sermons on the Song of Songs. Accessed September 27, 2021. https://hymnsandchants.com/Texts/Sermons/SongOfSongs/Sermon61/Sermon61.htm.
[iii] “Feast of the Sacred Heart: PRAYER OVER THE OFFERINGS.” Readings for the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Accessed September 27, 2021. http://www.liturgies.net/Pentecost/sacredheart/eucharist.htm.
Posted for the Solemnity of the Triumph of the Cross
September 14, 2021
