WHY IS THE HUMAN RACE SO SCARED OF THE CROSS?

No cross no crown!

The cross is the prime symbol of all time and will remain so until the end of time but it seems to be an object of fear among the secular world.

The latest incident involves a group of atheists who are campaigning to have a cross that was erected on the site of the Twin Towers 9/11 atrocity, removed. The cross was constructed from two of the steel girders salvaged from the debris and found already fused into a cross formation.

There have been many incidents of nurses or others wearing  a cross worn on a chain or as a brooch in the workplace and even of a van driver who displayed a Palm cross in his vehicle. All of them were subject to dismissal type procedures.

There has been agitation in Italy and other mainland European countries, to have the crucifix removed from classrooms and public sector offices. What is eating at these people?

If the humanists or atheists wanted to put a logo on their advertising and poster hoardings I wouldn't bat an eyelid; if they wanted to erect 3 dimensional logos on their own land that would be fine provided that it complied with planning regulations.

So why does the material world throw a hissy fit when a cross is displayed?

Of course, we know that a cross without Christ is a contradiction anyway; you can't have the cross without the victim. You cannot have Easter Sunday without first having Good Friday. The bare unadorned cross is really a Protestant emblem but, sadly, there are quite a few Catholic churches who have also opted for the sanitised version - no saving victim.

Archbishop Sheen called the bare cross "effeminate" and so it is. Take away the Man and you are left with two cross sections of wood.

There is an old but good story of a woman who walked into a jewellers store and asked to be shown a chain with a cross on. "Certainly" Said the jeweller. "Would you like a plain one or one with the little man on?"

We have moved so far away from knowledge of the truth, in another twenty years most of the educated world will not even know who Jesus Christ is.

The world is drifting away from the reality of the crucified Christ and adopting a format that does not challenge or require thoughts of redemption, suffering and sacrifice.

That is what the American atheists are scared of......the reality of God's kingdom made apparent through the ordeal, humiliation and torture of His sacrificial Son. And that is why the world fears the cross. The world wants success, triumph, self promotion: it does not want to be reminded of the Good Friday element of redemptive pain, suffering and humiliation.

GOOD FRIDAY

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
     That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood's slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
     Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
     Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
     Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon--
     I, only I.

Yet give not o'er,
     But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
     And smite a rock.



Christina Georgina Rossetti

THE CRUCIFIXION BIRD



The common or garden goldfinch is featured a great deal in paintings of the Madonna and Christ Child and there are several accounts of its importance in terms of Good Friday. The most common legend has it that a goldfinch alighted on the cross and tried to remove thorns from the head of Christ with its beak (hence the bird has a face stained with the blood of Christ). Then again, the bird appears, as above, with the infant Christ as a prophetic symbol of what is to come.

The British Goldfinch and its Siberian cousin are basically the same, a quite gaudy bird with feathers in black, brown, red, white and yellow. Readers from the USA have, I believe, a species that is yellow and black.

Photo: Wikipedia

They are one of my favourite breeds of bird and we have at least 8 pairs that come to take the niger seed from our feeders...this is getting a bit Fr Zish!

Please note: I am being good this week and not posting on controversial issues, in fact, not posting too much really, the approach of Good Friday is something that I always find rather sombre.





The debate that splits the Catholic Church.....

.....This debate has set father against son, daughter against mother, friends have parted company over it and it's best not to discuss it if alcohol has been taken. It has gone on for years and H/T to Bones for reminding me that it is in the news once more.......


......is it permissible eat hot cross buns on Good Friday or not?

Does it also make you hot and cross
when these are eaten on Good Friday?

In my book it's a definite no! How can you indulge in consuming these delicious spiced buns on a day of fasting, abstinence and penance? And you cannot get away with it by arguing the case that, because they are adorned with a cross sign it is all approved by Holy Mother Church.

Yet I know many Catholics (from both ends of the spectrum) who will eat hot cross buns as part of the tradition of Good Friday. They are conning themselves, it breaks with tradition, it is wrong.

By the way, please do not think that I am being bunphobic - I have a passion for these things but save it until Holy Saturday!