Wondrous love

At Mass today for the Exaltation of the Cross the priest began his homily by describing the cross as an instrument of torture and degradation. And he went on to say: when we look at the cross we see the worst that humans can do to each other... Yes, I thought, and we also see the best of what God can do for us...

And from somewhere in the distance I could hear, quietly but richly joyful, the opening words of an old spiritual: What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul, what wondrous love is this...?

Heart-Cross by Manfred Bugl,
image given to my group when we made our perpetual vows

So when we look at the cross we do indeed see a barbaric instrument of torture, the worst that humans can conceive and do to each other. But we also see the height, depth and breadth of God's love, the awesome, wonderful enormity of that love - the Wondrous Love who allowed himself to be nailed to the Cross. On its own the cross is horrific; with and because of Christ, it is gloriously, triumphantly redemptive. It is the worst of us, transformed by wondrous love into the best of God - a reminder that nothing and nobody is so awful as to be beyond God's powerful, transforming and redemptive love.