Father Thomas Welbers' Homily	Jump back to Homily Index
Fifth Sunday of Lent, April 6, 2003 Jeremiah 31:31-34 Hebrews 5:7-9 John 12:20-33	Listen to Audio

Whenever somebody tells me that they have visited our new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles, I’ll usually ask what they liked best about it. As you may be aware, not everybody likes its architecture, and some feel it should not even have been built. But anyway, there it is. Like it or not, you can’t miss it driving through downtown on the Hollywood Freeway.

What is interesting is that even those who don’t like the Cathedral find something about it that they love, that they talk enthusiastically about, that captures their imagination in a positive way. For most people I’ve talked to, it’s the tapestries, depicting life-like and larger than life, the communion of saints – men, women, and children like us throughout the ages – moving forward totally enthralled by the mystery of God-become-one-of-us. For others it’s the basement crypt mausoleum – a quiet spot that enshrines memories of the past with stained glass and artifacts of the old St. Vibiana’s Cathedral.

Recently one person told me without hesitation that her favorite spot in the Cathedral was at the foot of the crucifix. The crucifix stands in an open space behind the altar, about life-size or maybe slightly larger. It’s a dark-hued, rough-surfaced bronze statue that clearly is an image of great suffering, and it evokes deep emotion. One newspaper article, a few weeks after the Cathedral opened last September, said that the crucifix had quickly become a popular object of veneration, with people frequently lining up for the opportunity to touch it or even kiss it.

And this crucifix depicts in a way that perhaps nothing else does, the relationship of the cross of Jesus Christ to our salvation. It’s not a pretty, nicely decorated work of art. It is a twisted, graphic depiction of the suffering Christ. And it shows the deep connection between the suffering Christ and our own human suffering – that’s why people are drawn to it. It shows our need for God to be completely one with us, not a remote God in unapproachable splendor – even if he's working wonders for us. In order to be fully part of us, God had to become physically entangled in this world’s evil and pain.

Now, the fact is, that this is a mystery that is really too great for us to comprehend. We, I think, would rather have that remote God who “does it” for us, that removes our pain from us – and that’s why we are so often frustrated when it seems our prayers to have pain and suffering taken away seem not to be answered. But if we really are honest, we know God can’t do it for us, because we are not puppets on a string. God created us with free will, with ability to sin as well as to love. And so, our salvation can only come about, not by God removing us from suffering, but by God coming and simply being one with us in our pain and suffering, and inviting us to unite our suffering with his.

We may not fully understand this mystery of God’s suffering with us, but it is not by understanding that we are saved. We are saved by acceptance, acceptance of the cross of Jesus Christ. Understanding is a gift from God which follows our acceptance – it doesn’t come before it.

That’s why we have to allow these words of John’s Gospel, which we have just heard, to speak deeply to us. As Jesus is lifted high on the cross, his bloody cross, the cross of agonizing suffering, the cross of shame of degradation, the cross which was death penalty for the common criminal, the cross that was a sign of contempt for nearly everybody around, which brought forth their mocking and even physically abusive words and gestures. As Jesus is lifted high on that bloody cross, he draws all to himself.

If our salvation had been accomplished in any other way –according to our desires for order and control – it would not have the drawing power, it would not have the saving power, because we would know that God would still be remote, that God still wouldn’t really understand us. Our salvation comes from the fact the God who created us, who knows us as creator, also knows us as being one of us. And that’s why we can approach him with our pain and our sufferings, and not expect him to wave a magic wand, but simply present ourselves as we are into his presence, into his hands, knowing that he understands, and that he is with us. And that is enough for us.

© Thomas Welbers, 2003