Remove the Mountainswould You So It Again
Meditating on the Cross before the Most Holy Crucifix of Piety
This September 14, the Grand Principal of the Lodge of the Holy Sepulchre, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, is in Galatone in the province of Lecce to preside over the solemn opening of celebrations to mark the 400th ceremony of the Miracle of the Almost Holy Crucifix of Piety housed in that location. This sacred icon of Jesus (pictured) dating dorsum to the XV century represents the mystery of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord according to 1 of the honey representations in Eastern theology. In 1621 the image was covered by a veil that removed it from the direct view of the faithful and preserved the image which is considered miraculous. Before the optics of various witnesses on 2 July near 400 years ago, the veil lifted revealing the hands of the Lord, no longer jump, which appeared to remove the veil.
On this feast day for the Knights and Dames of the Order in which the Church invites us to meditate on the Exaltation of the Holy Cantankerous, so close to our spirituality, we share some excerpts from the homily delivered past Cardinal Filoni on the theme of the cantankerous.
"Reflecting on the mystery of our Redemption, the expression "the Almost Holy Crucifix of Piety" may at first announced singular. In truth, in this context the word "Pietas, or Piety" does not refer to a 'pious' sentiment, nor does it evoke the emotionality towards a 'poor suffering man'. It is St. Paul who, earlier offering usa an beauteous synthesis of his Christology ("He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated past the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached amongst the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken upwardly in glory", 1 Tim 3:xvi), says that it is our profound duty "to confess that great is the mystery of piety (pietas)," that is, of God'due south amore and 'passionate' love for the states, a love that offers itself to humanity, a love that transforms and opens.
The Icon of the Crucifix that we venerate presents Jesus with a imperial mantle on his shoulders; a cross tin can be glimpsed behind him, while he is in the middle of a sepulchre with his face slightly reclined, conveying a awareness of peace.
The regal pall was the symbol of the power and dominion of kings. Christ's shoulders, in truth, do non bear the greatness of imperial ability, but the profound mystery of suffering, of a being humiliated and derided by his tormentors, by a Roman Procurator and by leaders of the people who incited the oversupply. Jesus' curtain is one of service, of his martyrdom to which the Church is also called in the likeness of her Lord, it is a mantle of the tribulations of the faithful and of the persecutions in so many of her members down through the centuries.
The cantankerous, from being an instrument of death inflicted with a Roman sentence and reserved for slaves for the almost serious crimes, became an instrument of reconciliation and salvation, so much so that Paul writes to the Galatians to avowal in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Gal 6:fourteen), and he reminds the inhabitants of Corinth that it was a scandal for the Jews, foolishness for the pagans just for believers, Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God (cf. 1 Cor one:23-24).
The Christ emerging from the tomb signifies not only the mystery of his death only, at the same time, of the resurrection. Jesus is alive. With his resurrection he calmed the troubled souls, overcame the bulwark of consternation into which humanity had fallen, the disciples and the women who had buried him, confused the minds of the Pharisees and Pilate. The decisive point in all these arcane events was his resurrection. It was non a reanimated corpse, merely something totally different from whatsoever class of revitalization to which medicine sometimes resorts; information technology is a new dimension of existence that Jesus acquires and gives us: "I am the resurrection and the life" (Jn 11:25).
Looking at the mystery depicted in the Icon of the Crucifix of Piety, each of us is questioned by his confront full of suffering, but too of peace: What does Christ wish to say to me today? [...]
Does non the biggy issue that we commemorate, that is the veil that is pushed aside and the hands that are loosened, non tell the states that Christ wants to speak to us, that he wants to look into my eyes, that he is waiting to be looked at, that he wishes to initiate a dialogue almost life destroyed by sins, that he wishes to make me empathise that he is not distant, nor indifferent to me, nor to the world in which we live?
The prophet Isaiah, in a poignant invocation, cried: "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come downwardly, that the mountains would tremble before you! " (Is 64,19). The Son of God who as well became the Son of man really tore the heavens open, opened a dialogue, every bit Saint Paul says, removed the veil from the eyes of our mind (cf. 2 Cor iii:16), he wishes to go along a dialogue with this closed, selfish, heathen earth of ours, where God is not denied, just more often we ignore Him, hide Him, avoid Him past thinking, basically with cynical indifference, that aught will e'er change.
I would like to call back that the meaning of our celebration and this anniversary will not be a simple historical event, but a propitious opportunity for profound spiritual renewal in the context of this pandemic that has reduced us all; Jesus removes the veil in one case again and asks for the renewal of our faith in the sign of the Cross and in the context of the many crosses that distress u.s. daily and brand us suffer; it asks for an act of trust in God'due south mercy, of reconciliation in families, of profound conversion. Let us then allow ourselves to exist reconciled by Christ! We learn to dear in the dimension of the Cross and of a Crucifix that removes the veil of our hypocrisy and looks us in the eye forever. Amen."
Fernando Cardinal Filoni
(September 14, 2020)
Source: http://www.oessh.va/content/ordineequestresantosepolcro/en/gran-magistero/il-gran-maestro/lista-news-gran-maestro/meditando-sulla-croce-attraverso-il-ss--crocifisso-della-pieta-.html
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