He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24
There is a monastery in rural Kentucky where, several years ago, I enjoyed a few days of prayerful retreat. The monastery has several walking trails that run far and wide from the monastery grounds into the surrounding woods and hills. On a bright blue day in the middle of my retreat, I was wandering around one of these wooded hills, far away from any roads or buildings, when I came across a large wooden cross planted in the ground, its vertical beam probably about 10 feet tall. Posted just above the cross beam was a little piece of wood with the familiar inscription: INRI. You’ll often see these letters on crucifixes, and they are short for Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, Latin for “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” – the inscription that Pilate had written over the Lord at his crucifixion.
I later discovered that this cross was the one originally placed on top of the steeple of the monastery church, but had been removed to this remote place in the woods when the church was renovated several years before. But I have never forgotten the feeling I had when I encountered this quietly imposing symbol of our Lord’s crucifixion there in the solitude of those woods.
I was not expecting it; there were no preparatory “stations of the cross” that gradually led to this at the end of the road. The cross was just there, all of a sudden, this silent but unmistakable testimony to the redemption of the world. I had the sense that, no matter where we are in the world, no matter where we are in life, no matter how far we may wander from church, no matter how deep in the woods or the weeds we find ourselves, Jesus Christ, with the saving power of his cross, is already there before us.
His cross is the true “tree of life,” and what I saw in the quiet stillness of a silent forest is the truth that lies at the heart of all reality: Jesus is King – King of the Jews and King of the World – and this King loves us with an unimaginable love, the very love that moves the stars, and the love that poured itself out unto death for us sinners.
Relish that love this week. It is the one and only thing that will never let you down.
God bless you!
Fr. Mac
