What does the Cross really mean

Homily Given at the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday
at St. Patrick's Church
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

The past few weeks I have been preaching about
exactly what we believe and understand
that our Lord did for us on Calvary.

We say so responsively that Jesus died for us on the Cross.
Often without thinking about what that means.

We fail to consider the reality of the Cross in all its ignominy
We fail to consider what Jesus accomplished on the cross
And so we fail to see how the Cross is a challenge to us today
To incorporate this mystery—
which is so central a mystery because
it is the same saving mystery we celebrate at the Altar each week
—into our lives.

Jesus didn’t go to his death
because we’d been bad and God needed to punish us
He needed to inflict pain on someone!

This image of an angry abusive father
is not God the Father in Heaven.

There is a sense in which Jesus was a scapegoat for our sins,
But that’s not at the core of what He did.

The Cross is not a human Sacrifice
God specifically prohibits these in the Old Testament
Saying that He really doesn’t even desire animal sacrifices

WHAT HE WANTS—is what animal sacrifices symbolize.


As I said in my homilies two week ago
God desires a sacrifice of praise more than anything

God desires quite simply, the only thing we have to give Him
The only thing He can’t make—
a free gift of our gratitude, praise, and love.

Everything that exists was created by God—
and God doesn’t need us to give him what’s already His own

This is even true of our life—
He gave it to us, and if He desires He can take it away,
So there is no sense in human sacrifice.

What He does desire, is that His children
Seeing all that God has done for them,
All the good things He has given them

Respond in gratitude and thanksgiving—
the Greek word for this is Eucharist.

You see, you can create a free will,
but you can’t force someone to use it the way you want them to,
at least not while allowing them to remain free.

A lesson parents quickly learn with their children.

Parent’s sometimes resort to coercion, or force, or violence
But God, who could force us, believes freedom is important enough
To protect, even when it means Humanity sinning.


On the Cross Jesus freely gave thanks to God for the gift of His life
When in perfect freedom He commended His spirit
into the hands of the Father

You’d think, that if all God desires is thanksgiving,
well then:
why not give God thanks and praise on the beach
or while watching the Sun rise over the Sea of Galilee
or while feasting with His friends
or in any number of more pleasant situations
than on the Cross.

And the fact of the matter is God does desire us
to offer the sacrifice of praise in these moments too!

But trusting and loving God, is meaningless
If we limited it to those moments when we think we
Understand, approve of, and enjoy the will of the Father.

The true test of Love is not agreeing that a sunset is beautiful
The true test of Love believes that the sun will return
In the dark cold of midnight.

In the Garden of Eden God gave Adam and Eve the Garden to enjoy
Placing no restrictions on them save one.

That one restriction was the test of love
God challenges us to trust in Him even when we don’t know
Why He does what He is doing
To give Him praise even when His plans don’t correspond,
Or perhaps even go against our own plan.

Adam and Eve failed, in fact we all fail.
Because giving God thanks and praise for everything He has given us
means attempting to seek and do His will always,
in our selfishness even the saints have trouble doing this,

we have all eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil
whenever we ignore God’s plan and seek to do our own will.

What Christ did on the tree of the Cross
Is the exact opposite of what we do at the Tree in the garden.

Christ gives all up to God’s plan—
Christ embraces a plan that includes human freedom
And that allows human sins to cause human suffering—
He allows His creatures to arrest Him, mock Him,
Beat Him, spit upon Him, Condemn Him, strip Him,
Nail Him, crucify Him, and ultimately to murder Him.

And the Cross challenges us to give God the same sacrifice of praise,
When these things are done to us.

On the Cross Jesus does the will of the Father,
That’s His sacrifice.

And the will of the Father is not that Jesus die,
although God allows that possibility,
the will of the Father is that Jesus shows us God’s love.

On the Cross Jesus show’s us that there is no situation in life
into which God cannot come,
no situation into which He does not desire to come
to be with His Children and comfort them.
This past week I was sick with a cold.
God did not give me the cold
BUT (with sarcasm) HE COULD HAVE MADE IT GO AWAY!

As Jesus says, just a word and He could have sent 12 legions of angels
To chase away all the viruses and bacteria
that left me in bed for almost a week,
just days before Holy Week one of the most busy times of the year.

As a sat in bead, shivering and sweating, coughing my lungs out,
And feeling bad for myself, worrying about preparing for Holy week,

I realized how much of a blessing my cold was—it got me to stop,
To slow down the frantic pace that my life has been taking on
The past few weeks, and to pray, and seek God’s will.

Maybe my cold was my little cross,
but looking at it with the eyes of thanksgiving
I see how it also a gift from God—
and honestly this has been spiritually one of the most peaceful
Holy Weeks I’ve had in some time.

There are lots of crosses going on out there:
Unemployment, or underemployment
Sicknesses much more serious and scary than my cold
Rising food and fuel prices, increasing instability in the world
Natural disasters, the deaths of love ones,
Uncertainty about the future.

The Cross shows us that into each of these crosses
Jesus, our God, desires to come,
To take our burdens on His own shoulders
So that we can see, or at least believe
That God is working in our life—
making even bad situations in our lives opportunities
for blesses, and heroic acts, and love.

Christianity is founded on the belief that God loves us
And created us to be happy,
and that no matter what happens in our life, good or bad,
God is working it all out for our good.

In 1787, when the founding fathers completed
their work on the new Constitution Ben Franklin quipped
"I have often ... in the course of the session ... looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun."
Franklin was speaking of a painted sun
on the back of the presider’s chair.

He noted that in art it is often difficult to tell if a sun
is rising or setting—perhaps the same is true of life.

Our Christian faith, and the mystery of the Cross,
Requires us to believe and have faith in God
That the sun of His plan, is always rising on our life.
As Christians we are an optimistic people,
Whose “glass half full” philosophy was justified
once and for all by the empty tomb on Easter.

This is our sure and certain hope, which allows us to offer God
the Sacrifice of Praise, together with our Lord Jesus Christ,
Even when we are on the cross with Him.