Excerpt from Phases of the Sacred Passion: A Lenten Course

Synopsis - Introduction. - The Cross both a power and a spell. No wonder, for it sums up the life, teaching and ideals of Christ, Son of the living God, though often directly opposed to pleasure, wealth and culture, the gods of the world; yet its attractive force irresistible. Once a badge of infamy, the Cross is now the symbol, the flag, the banner, of the conquering Christ, and His advancing kingdom. In this uplifting and glorification of the symbol, lurks the danger of our forgetting what the Cross really meant to Christ in life; and what it ought to mean in ours. Hence, the need of dwelling on the sacred Passion of Our Lord, of which the Cross is the synonym.

I. The Cross in shadow ever lay over the world; for it implies sacrifice, the need and accompaniment of sin. Rested personally on Our Lord all through His human life. His consciousness of the future. Horror of impending and anticipated evils. The types and prophesies of the Old Testament were to Him shadows of the Cross. The tree of life, the mur der of Abel, Noah carrying wood to build the ark, Isaac bearing the wood on which he should be offered in sacrifice by his own father, the wonder working rod of Moses, the life of David, all traced out in His mind the image of the Cross on which He should redeem the world.

II. As He advances in life, the shadows deepen. They outline the Cross in all its terrible features. Finally, they culminate as threatening clouds massing in the sky; and the storm they presage, breaks in full fury on Him, in the dread hour of the agony in the garden. The Passion these shadows outlined now begins.

Lessons - Lives of most of us lie in shadow. Deep shade or thick darkness tinge, if they do not envelope, what are deemed the sunniest and merriest lives. Death, and sin, and uncertainty of the future, are enough to darken all lives. Whence came light, peace, hope and rest? From that very Cross, the shadows of which darkened the life of Christ. Under its shadow will the soul find forgiveness and peace and eternal rest.

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