“the world might be saved through him”

 
Activity - Most recognized symbols
The Cross is one of the most recognized symbols in the world. Have everyone write down what they feel are the top three most recognized symbols in the world. These sheets can be turned in and a tally can be made and presented at the end of the class. It would be important to ask not what their top 3 are, but what they think the top 3 in the world are. Don’t give examples to the group but some examples would be the McDonald’s arches, the Nike symbol, etc.
 
The Crucifix around someone's neck is kind of an odd symbol.  Crucifixion was a state mandated form of capital punishment for over 300 years in the Roman Empire.  It would be like an American walking around with an electric chair necklace or a syringe necklace. Some people could think, “Why do we wear crucifixes and hang them in our homes?”
 
What is the difference between a Cross and a Crucifix? A Cross does not have the Body of Christ, the corpus on it. The crucifix has both the cross and the corpus. Some feel the use of a crucifix instead of a cross shows a lack of “appreciation for the Resurrection”, and a desire to “keep Jesus on the Cross.” Others feel that it places too much emphasis on suffering, or that the Passion of Christ is a thing of the past. We have to remember that the Passion, death and resurrection are one. We cannot have the Resurrection without the Cross, and the Cross is meaningless without the Resurrection. We can also think of three events in the Life of Christ. These events are also mysteries of the Rosary: The Institution of the Eucharist (the Last Supper), the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.
 
A good way to illustrate the individual importance yet oneness is to think of three people in a single file line. The first person holds their hands out. They are Christ, giving the Eucharist; the second person, the one in the middle puts their hands out, they are Christ crucified; the third person, the one at the back of the line, puts their hands up in the air toward the sky, they are Christ resurrected. If this is done in back of a cloth and back lit, the three people will been seen as one image, the cross, but if the lights are turned on and the cloth removed, the three people and their actions will be seen.
 
VIDEO - The Legend of Three Trees
Jesus is the fruit, which hangs on the tree of life. Just as the fruit of the tree in the garden, which was in the center of the garden, brought death; this fruit, which came from the womb of Mary and the center of history is lifted high on the tree, the wood of the Cross to bring about life. It is an honor to have a relic [sliver] of the Cross, if this piece of wood could talk, what a story and honor it would be.
 
How did the Cross go from being a sign of shame to a sign of honor? “When the Emperor Constantine [4^th Century], had conquered his enemy, the cruel Maxentius, by the aid of the Holy Cross, which he saw in the heavens, radiant and glorious, with the inscription: “In this sign Conquer” he became animated with such veneration for the Cross, that he commanded it to be venerated throughout the Roman Empire, and from that time forward forbade any one to be crucified.  He also resolved to build a magnificent church in Jerusalem in honor of the Holy Cross.  His mother, the Empress Helena, in her very advanced age went herself to the Holy Land, and undertook, with the aid of St. Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, to find the sacred burial-place of Christ.”[i]
 
It is truly in the sign of the Cross that we conquer because Christ conquered. Saint Andrew of Crete says that the Cross is both a sign of suffering and the trophy of his victory. “The cross is honorable 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.”[ii]
 
The victory for us is threefold. “Christ wanted to suffer and die first of all to satisfy the divine justice for our sins…Christ willed to suffer and die in order to evoke our grateful love…and finally, the sufferings of Christ teach us to embrace the Cross as the sure means of achieving holiness; nothing is more sanctifying than uniting one’s own sufferings with those of the Savior in His blessed passion and death on Calvary.”[iii]

What do we get out of the victory?[iv] Christ redeemed us from the guilt of sin, and thus reconciled us with His heavenly Father. Christ redeemed us from the punishment we deserved for sin in this life and in the life to come. Christ redeemed us from the power of the evil spirit, who because of sin, became as Christ said, “the prince of this world [that] is to be overthrown” (John 12:31) “The Cross is planted in the earth and would seem to extend its roots in human malice, but it reaches up, pointing as it were to the heavens, pointing to the goodness of God. By means of the Cross of Christ, the Evil One has been defeated, death is overcome, life is given to us, hope is restored, and light is imparted. O Crux, ave spes unica!”[v] We are free from sin, reconciled with the Father, free from both temporal and eternal punishment and free from the power of Satan. What mercy; it is no wonder that we pray, “We adore you O Christ and we praise you because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”
 
How do we share in the victory? Do we want the victory? Christ said it is finished, but yet St. Paul says that we complete what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. It is finished, but not finished. We can think of the Cross as a bank in which victory (redemption, salvation, grace, etc.) has been merited by Christ and deposited by Christ. There is debt that each person has -- some more, some less.  Christ knows the exact amount of each one of our debts, and he pays that debt on the Cross, and through his Passion, Death and Resurrection makes a deposit of grace on the Cross that can pay all of our debts.  The deposit is made; it is finished; what is lacking is the withdraw.  We must come to the Cross; embrace the Cross; pick up our Cross; participate in the Cross, and thus withdraw what has been given freely to us.
 
Search: The Roads to Heaven and Hell
 
How is suffering a victory? We sometimes hear that Christ suffered so that we wouldn’t have to. This is correct in that Christ suffered so that we would not have to suffer the eternal punishment of hell (complete separation from God). This is incorrect if we think we do not have to suffer at all. The lesson of the Cross is the dignity and value of human suffering. Christ suffered so that we would know how to suffer, so that we would know the meaning of suffering, so that we could participate in the redemptive nature of suffering.

[i] Fr. Leonard Goffine’s the Church’s Year
[ii] Spiritual Reading in the Link to Liturgy packet
[iii] Fr. John A. Hardon S.J.; Basic Catholic Catechism Course; page 23
[iv] See Fr. John A. Hardon S.J.; Basic Catholic Catechism Course; page 23
[v] Blessed John Paul II; Homily September 14, 2003