The Cross of Christ: Its Meaning, Power and Wisdom

In today’s first reading, 1 Cor 1¨17-25, Paul reminds us that God has sent him, not “to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning. The message of the cross,” Paul observes, ”is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside….’  [T]he world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. 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 are who called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

The pain, suffering and grief that people throughout the world are suffering—fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, wars, chronic and terminal illnesses, divorces and the deteriorization of family life, the loss of morals and justice toward the poor and oppressed and minorities in every nation, the prominence of evil in drug trafficking, human trafficking, slave labor and the violence in our streets—reveals the “cross of Christ,” through which salvation has come into the world on that first Good Friday and every “good Friday” since that day 2000+ years ago.  To the unbeliever, this is considered foolishness and does not, in their minds, reveal “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  “Don’t tell me God exists,” is what we hear from a lot of angry people. “Look at the evil in the world,” they say and then ask “Where is God?”

To the haughty and proud of heart, the cross is scoffed at as much today as it was by  persons who stood  beneath the cross on that first Good Friday where angry people were taunting the  dying Jesus, saying:  “’He saved others, he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, for us to see it and believe.’ Even those who were crucified with him taunted him” (Mark 15: 30-32).

When you and I face the effects of sin and evil in this world and the suffering it causes, are we among those who speak disdainfully of God and the crucified Lord?  Or do we hold firm to our faith in Christ Jesus even in the most devastating of circumstances in our lives, as did the good thief on the cross when, in his pain and dying, he turned to the Son of God and said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23: 41).