Geologists have observed that over millennia the polarity of planet earth shifts — what had been north pole becomes south and vice versa, what had been a positive pole becomes negative. The Feast of the Cross can be looked upon as a polarity shift. Human beings from Adam and Eve had been trying to get something — knowledge, comfort, self-sufficiency, even survival. Grasping after whatever apple was attracting at any given moment almost defines human behavior. On the cross Jesus did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself. Instead of getting, Jesus on the cross was about emptying, about giving. Christians “lift high the cross” as a reminder that the self-gift of Christ serves as the model for our lives as well. Instead of thinking “what’s in in for me,” striving to get more and more, we live in the shadow of the cross by freely giving compassion, forgiveness, kindness.
