The cross is the symbol of all symbols

March 11, 2007 -- Third Sunday of Lent

By Bishop Robert Morneau

	Bishop Robert Morneau
	Questions for reflection: 1. Do you see dry shrubs or burning bushes on your spiritual journey? 2. What meaning does the cross have for you? 3. What goals do you have for Lent?

Year after year I return to a favorite stanza from a poem by Elizabeth Barret Browning: "Earth's crammed with heaven / And every common bush afire with God; / And only he who sees takes off his shoes - / The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries." How Ms. Browning must have loved today's passage from Exodus as Moses is told by God to take off his sandals and realize, once and for all, that he stood on holy ground. Enough blackberry picking; time to move beyond the hungers of the stomach to the spiritual hunger for God's abiding presence.

L e n t
• Everyday People, Everyday Faith articles
• Other Lent articles

Just as Moses was captivated by a flaming bush, St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, is sensitive to the cloud and sea that his ancestors encountered as instruments of God's power and presence. Paul was also sensitive to food and drink, the kind of nourishment that feeds the spirit more than the body. Finally, Paul was sensitive to the rock that he calls Christ. Just as God was revealed in a burning bush, Christ is full epiphany of the divine through the symbolism of a rock. Paul removed his shoes for he knew he was on holy ground.

Moses dealt with a burning bush; St. Paul dealt with food and drink and rocks: Jesus deals with a fig tree. Fig trees are not notorious for giving shade. Their task in life is to produce figs. Failing to do just that, down they come having lost their purpose. But Jesus, who walked barefoot and saw everything, realized that seeing deeply always leads to hope. Future fruit is coming; we must be patient, patient with fig trees, with ourselves, and with others. Growth and maturity takes times, sometimes up to eighty-five, ninety years.

A burning bush; the cloud and sea; a fig tree. During this season of Lent we are given a symbol that rolls all of these into one: the cross! As we kneel before the crucifix we know that we are in holy space. Jesus crucified, the theme of St. Paul's preaching, is an expression of God's extravagant love as it is a sign of human sinfulness. Sin crucifies; love heals and destroys death.

The cross is like a cloud and sea in that it veils the true Son for all those who cannot accept a God who is willing to take on our human condition in such a radical and total way. It is like the sea in that the extended arms of Christ reach out in their vastness to embrace the whole world. Simeon in the temple told us when Mary and Joseph presented the child Jesus that here was the light of all peoples, the glory of Israel. It was the cross that pierced Mary's heart and it was the cross that redeemed the world.

The cross is like a fig tree in that it is made out of wood and bears figs, not for the stomach, but the figs of mercy that restore our friendship with God. It is Eucharistic food - "My body, My blood given for you!" Crosses do not grow like a live tree but this "tree" continues to bear fruit down through the ages - that old rugged, wooden cross!

Reverence is the order of the day. Wonder too. We need to see deeply into the images that engage our spiritual life.

(Bp. Morneau is the auxiliary bishop of the Green Bay Diocese and pastor of Resurrection Parish in Allouez.)