Not even death on a cross. As a criminal. As an enemy of the state. As an outcast. Even that can not wrest God's beloved out of God's hand. Love will win. Love will triumph. Love will rise again.
That is the powerful message of the Gospel: the good news of Jesus Christ. Not that he died, but that his death was not an end but a new beginning. This is a beginning that is offered to everyone who faces down all the forces that will try to trample us. These are the folks who face those forces with forgiveness, grace, reconciliation and the ever present reality that each one of us carries the same darkness and opposes God.
Those who follow this Jesus are called to carry that cross in their hearts - and on their backs. The cross summons each of us to put to death all within us that feeds the forces of death: all that causes harm to our neighbor, all that keeps us from creating community with all who surround us. The cross summons us to lay it down, strip it off, give it up. Why? because life in Jesus is greater than any power we now possess.
Jesus said, 'those who lose their life will find it' and if you wish to be my disciples then 'take up your cross and follow me'. Jesus calls us into solidarity against the forces of darkness - those who rule from without and those which rule from within ourselves.
If you think that this gospel message has little in common with the cathedrals of Europe, you may be on to something.
Today we pray that we can walk as Jesus' disciples and embrace life, not for our own sake, for the sake of all of our neighbors.
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