Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 371

The Cross, then, is something far greater and more mysterious than it at

first appears. It is indeed an instrument of torture, suffering and defeat, but

at the same time it expresses the complete transformation, the definitive

reversal of these evils: that is what makes it the most eloquent symbol of

hope that the world has ever seen. It speaks to all who suffer - the op-

pressed, the sick, the poor, the outcast, the victims of violence - and it offers

them hope that God can transform their suffering into joy, their isolation

into communion, their death into life. It offers unlimited hope to our fallen

world.

That is why the world needs the Cross. The Cross is not just a private

symbol of devotion, it is not just a badge of membership of a certain group

within society, and in its deepest meaning it has nothing to do with the

imposition of a creed or a philosophy by force. It speaks of hope, it speaks

of love, it speaks of the victory of non-violence over oppression, it speaks of

God raising up the lowly, empowering the weak, conquering division, and

overcoming hatred with love. A world without the Cross would be a world

without hope, a world in which torture and brutality would go unchecked,

the weak would be exploited and greed would have the final word. Man's

inhumanity to man would be manifested in ever more horrific ways, and

there would be no end to the vicious cycle of violence. Only the Cross puts

an end to it. While no earthly power can save us from the consequences of our

sins, and no earthly power can defeat injustice at its source, nevertheless the

saving intervention of our loving God has transformed the reality of sin and

death into its opposite. That is what we celebrate when we glory in the Cross

of our Redeemer. Rightly does Saint Andrew of Crete describe the Cross as

"more noble, more precious than anything on earth [...] for in it and through

it and for it all the riches of our salvation were stored away and restored

to us".2

Dear brother priests, dear religious, dear catechists, the message of the

Cross has been entrusted to us, so that we can offer hope to the world. When

we proclaim Christ crucified we are proclaiming not ourselves, but him. We

are not offering our own wisdom to the world, nor are we claiming any merit

of our own, but we are acting as channels for his wisdom, his love, his saving

merits. We know that we are merely earthenware vessels, and yet, astonish-

ingly, we have been chosen to be heralds of the saving truth that the world

2 Oratio X: PG 97, 1018-1019.