Page 8 - St. Joseph Messenger September 2020

Jesus Christ is THE INSTRUMENT OF OUR SAL-
VATION. It is a universal image of the Christian
faith. For Christians, the cross is our portal into
heaven and eternal life with Christ. Jesus suffered
and died on the cross to save us; we suffer in unity
with Him to purify our souls. The cross is our
salvation!

The Cross is a Thing of Beauty
Saying that the Cross is a thing of beauty when it
represents suffering and death may at first seem to
be a gross contradiction. But isn’t what Jesus did for
us a magnificent moment in Christianity? By that it
is made beautiful.

Artist throughout the ages have glorified the cross in
their stunning works of art. In ancient
Christianity, the cross was portrayed as an anchor
or the Chi-Rho. But after Constantine’s edict of
toleration for all religions, artists became bolder,
eventually making the cross a true thing of beauty,
whether it is depicted as a plain cross or a crucifix.
The beauty of the cross is multi-faceted. It can be St Helena c. 1495
CIMA da Conegliano
Oil on panel, 40 x 32 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

viewed by all as an object of art; or it can be
explicitly adopted as the world’s salvation.

Celebrating the True Cross
The Church celebrates the cross in many ways -
by making the sign of the cross in prayer, on the
forehead of the child in Baptism, and in every
sacrament thereafter. Yet, the cross deserves a
feast of its own to give the faithful an opportuni-
ty to share in the triumph of the cross. This feast
is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, when
the Church gives all believers a day to see their
lives united with Christ in the cross. Thanks to
St. Helena and her son Emperor Constantine, the
True Cross was found; the pagan sites replaced

Alessandri Crucifixion 1480-81 with churches to honor the True Cross; and a
Andrea della Robia feast initiated by which the cross transcends the
Glazed terracotta, 600 x 420 cm symbol of suffering to shine as the symbol of
Chiesa Maggiore, La Verna salvation. SJM

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