Caravaggio, “Denial of St. Peter” (1610)
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Never look to a man for answers.
Look to Christ who is the answer.
If you insist on looking to a man, then choose one who points to Christ.
For the best teacher is Christ Himself…and His best assistants are those who clearly say: “Don’t look at me.”
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—Howard Hain
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The more bold we are in God’s name, the greater the mission He assigns—and the greater the resistance from the world.
That resistance is very real, a gravitational force, threatening to crush us, to drive us down beneath the earth—and that resistance takes the form of a cross.
The greater the mission, the heavier the cross.
But fear not, the supernatural force of faith always overcomes. And rest assured in this: No cross outweighs Christ’s, for He took on the weight of the entire world.
Yet, Christ stood, Christ climbed, Christ raised His punctured palms. He overcame the force of death itself and ascended victoriously into Heaven.
So be bold my brothers and sisters in Christ. Accept your mission, pick up your cross and walk, and if you stumble, if you fall…get up. Stand. Stand in faith. And know that you never stand alone.
Know that none of it is an illusion, not the suffering, not the victory.
Know that the struggle is not a figment of your imagination.
No, the weight of your cross is very real…but so is Christ.
Bosch, “Christ Carrying the Cross” (1515-16)
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—Howard Hain
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But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit. And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
—Matthew 27:50-52
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Van Dyck, “Crucifixion” (1622)
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Get close to the Cross, so close that you stand in its shadow.
It is then that you feel the earth quake and your faith deepen.
It is then that you witness salvation pouring forth from His wounds.
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.“Clearly this man was the son of God!”
—Mark 15:39
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—Howard Hain
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Can we, poor creatures we are, know God and enter God’s presence, the inaccessible God? Can our hearts be pure enough to see God? St. Gregory of Nyssa asks that question in his commentary on the beatitude “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.”
The “Hand of the Word” help us attain it.
“Does the Lord really encourage us to do something that is beyond our nature and our powers to accomplish? Surely not. Look at the birds: God has not created them without wings. Look at sea creatures: God has not designed them as land animals. Wherever we look, the law of each creature’s being does not demand that it should do something that it is beyond its own nature to do.
“Let us reflect on this and not despair of the purity of heart that the Beatitude speaks of. John, Paul and Moses did not, in the end, lack the sublime blessing of seeing God. Paul said There is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me; John lay on Jesus’ breast; and Moses heard God say to him, I have known you above all. It is certain that those who said that the contemplation of God was beyond human power were themselves blessed. But blessedness comes from the contemplation of God, and seeing God is something that comes to those who are pure of heart. It follows logically that purity of heart cannot be an unattainable thing.
“So if some, with Paul, truly say that the contemplation of God is beyond human power, yet the Lord himself contradicts them by promising the sight of God to those who are pure of heart.”
We shouldn’t set our sights low.
The old churches of Rome are wonderful guides to its Christian past. As a student almost 50 years ago I went through them with books like Hertling and Kirschbaum’s The Roman Catacombs and Their Martrys, a book I still keep at hand along with newer ones.
The 5th century church of Saint Peter in Chains is a church I’ve always associated with the First Marytrs of the Church of Rome, a feast we celebrate today, right after the feast of the apostles, Peter and Paul.
It was built near the Roman Prefecture, where people were dragged in chains to be interrogated, tortured, and made to face Roman justice. The Romans were sticklers for procedure. You had to be tried in court. Many Christians–we are not sure how many–were brought to justice near this church. Those chains above may actually come from the nearby Roman jail.
I wrote about it here , and I have a video you can see here.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
The Victor's Place 