AN EASTER THOUGHT
In church today for the Easter service, I found myself swept up in the joyous spirit. The music, the liturgy, the homily, al so spirit-lifting! But I had one disturbing thought as I looked at the crucifix: it seemed out of place, jarring and untimely. We were celebrating the risen Lord, but the unavoidable centerpiece of the church was the crucifix, graphically displaying the dying Lord. Didn’t the crucifixion end? Hasn’t Christ risen? Then why, on this most joyous day, are we faced with death – His death? His gruesome, ugly, pathetic, painful death?
On Holy Saturday, commemorating the day when Jesus was in the tomb, the crucifix was covered, removed from sight, signifying His terrible absence from us. But on Easter Sunday morning, He is back. We welcome Him home…but He is still dying!
As a recent convert (and long-lapsed Protestant), I have thought much about crucifixes. These depictions of our Savior dying on the cross adorn most (sadly not all) Catholic churches. In this, we are (as far as I know) unique. Protestant churches usually have crosses behind the altar, but rarely are the crosses occupied. Protestants tend to see the crucifix as needlessly maudlin. (Perhaps an appropriate word, if we remember its origin in the person of Mary Magdalene.)
The empty Protestant crosses are analogous to the empty tomb. The crucifixion, the death, the burial, all are in the past. We move on.
But Catholics present the cross complete with the body of Jesus. The “corpus” may be symbolical or impressionistic, often bloodless, all in consideration of modern sensibilities about bloody, tortured bodies. But they are still painful to see.
Theologically, I don’t know why Catholics embrace the crucifix rather than the cross. But I have always found the crucifix a useful reminder that now, as in the past, every sin hurts God. Every sin requires an atonement. Sin is not just an internal, private or inter-personal matter between me and anyone I injured with my sin. Every sin hurts God.
And so, the crucifixion never ends. It continues as long as sin does – that is, as long as I sin. And it is a great blessing to be reminded of that fact every time I step into a church. Even on Easter.
O Ben Finiti 