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SERMONS

The Feast of the Holy Cross
September 16, 2001

By David Christian

The cloud of smoke and ash that raced from the collapsing towers of the World Trade Center down the streets of New York City and hurled lower Manhattan into darkness, has now cast its pall over our entire country. The gray dust covers everything, its gritty bitterness in our mouths and noses and eyes, affecting all our thoughts and actions.

Today we celebrate Holy Cross Day, our name day here at the Chapel of the Cross. And we are celebrating the Eucharist for the first time here in the parish hall. But even this wonderful occasion is dulled by the darkness of that billowing cloud of death and destruction.

We are experiencing many feelings: grief, fear, anger, despair. We are confused. We don't know what to do. So we watch the grim scenes on the television over and over again. We listen to the reporters repeat themselves. We pray. We talk with one another. We cry with one another. We hug one another. Everything seems so little in the face of so much destruction. We feel helpless and lost.

In our anger and helplessness and pain there is a desire to strike out, a desire to hurt someone, a desire to make someone pay for what has been done, a desire for revenge. There is a need to find someone to hate.

But to do that would give the perpetrators of this horror the final victory. For their desire is to pull us down. Their desire is to make us like they are. Their desire is to lead us down a way that can only lead to utter destruction.

We cannot give in to darkness and despair and hate. In today's gospel-the gospel for Holy Cross Day-Jesus calls us children of light. And he calls us to believe in the light and to walk in the light. For when we walk in the darkness we do not know where we are going.

Martin Luther King wrote, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

Holy Cross Day commemorates the supposed discovery of our Lord's cross during excavation of the hill of Calvary in the fourth century. Over the ages this day has become for the church a time to reflect on the mystery of our redemption, and on how a device used to debase and destroy became a symbol of hope and the sign of our salvation.

There is said to be a piece of the cross at the University of Notre Dame. On Good Friday, after the solemn prayers, in the silence and darkness, what light there is guides the eye to that piece of the cross.

In the midst of our darkness in the aftermath of this terrible event our eyes must also seek the light of the cross. There we will find our hope. For we are a resurrection people. We know that death and destruction will not conquer. We know that in the wake of the worst that humanity can do, God has the final word. And that word is life, new life rising out of the place of death.

Our calling as Christians is to look for signs of that life, signs of resurrection. Our calling is to become signs of that life, to seek ways to bring healing to the wounded; to seek ways to bring consolation to the grieving; to seek ways to bring meaning to the hopeless; to seek ways to bring comfort to the fearful.

There must be justice in this matter. Those who planned and supported these deeds must face the consequences of their actions. But that is for those who have been given that responsibility.

Our calling, in all our conversations, in all our prayers, in all our actions, is to be bearers of hope, to be agents of reconciliation, to be signs of God's undying love for all people.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi