PART II

 

 

7. THE CROSS AND THE LIVING STONE

 

 

“The statue must be struck with hammers and polished with sharp chisels before it is placed in the great gallery."  "Henceforward, I wish you to be a rock"

                                                  (St. Paul of the Cross, CP)

 

Let us now turn more closely to the symbols of the stone, mountain or temple as we carry on focusing on Jesus Crucified, all which relate to this key moment in Salvation History. We will notice for instance, that many important events we know in Scripture happen on mountains or hills:

 

We have the landing of the Ark of Noah after the flood on Mt. Ararat:

 

Gradually the waters receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished that, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8: 3-4)

 

Then we have Mt. Moriah, the place where Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac:

 

Then God said: Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.

(Genesis 22:2)

 

Or on the same mountain where Solomon built his temple.

 

Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, which had been shown to David his father, in the place David had prepared (2 Chronicles 3:1)

 

Then we have Mt. Sinai, where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments:

 

When the Lord had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant, the stone tablets inscribed by God's own finger. (Exodus 31:18)

 

Also the  mount where Jesus preached about the beatitudes, the "Carta Magna" for Christians.

 

When he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.  He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.

Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

(Matthew 5:1-12)

 

Then there is Mt. Tabor, where traditionally it is recognized that Jesus was transfigured:

 

After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him (Matthew 17: 1)

 

Especially Mt. Calvary/ Golgotha, where all mountains converge, where Jesus was crucified:

 

They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull).  They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it. Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take. (Mark 15: 22-24)  [1]

 

Then we have Mt. Olivet, where Jesus ascended into heaven:

 

When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.  While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.  They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”  Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. (Acts 1:9-12)

 

These hills or mountains are all basic rock formations, large and small, standing firm throughout the centuries. Think for instance of smaller rock formations like statues carved out of marble or other stones of prominent figures throughout the world still intact today over centuries. But there are other rock formations where important events took place: the rock in the desert for instance, from which water flowed as mentioned previously. (Exodus 17: 6)

 

Then we have the cave in which Jesus was born. Luke doesn't mention specifically a cave, but those of us who have been to Bethlehem know, that one has to go into a dugout in a rock, to reach the birth place of Jesus, where the animals would take shelter.

 

"And Joseph, too, went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,  to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

(Luke 2:5-7)

 

There is also the stone tomb, in which the body of Christ was placed, marking the end of Jesus' visible earthly life…

 

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was himself a disciple of Jesus.  He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be handed over.  Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it in clean linen and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb and departed. (Matthew 27:57-61)

 

But all of these rock formations speak of a deeper meaning, one of firmness, endurance and permanence throughout time. God as our Rock is frequently used throughout Scriptures.

 

As the psalm says:

 

"Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, my saving horn, my stronghold!" (Psalm 18:3)

 

On the other hand, rocky formations like mountains and hills, as we have indicated, highlight events that stand out, elevated for all to see. The following example highlights both the small and the large: the rock that becomes a mountain:

 

There is rock that struck the statue that Nabucodonosor saw in a dream that represent the worldly kingdoms including that of Nabucodonosor, who is the powerful kingdom symbolized in the head of the statue, made of gold.  The rock shatters the statue and becomes a mountain that fills the earth. This announces the future arrival of the Everlasting Kingdom of God, in the person of His Son Jesus, who is the Rock of our Salvation in the name of His Father:

 

“This was the dream; the interpretation we shall also give in the king's presence. You, O king, are the king of kings; to you the God of heaven has given dominion and strength, power and glory;  human beings, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever they may dwell, he has handed over to you, making you ruler over them all; you are the head of gold. Another kingdom shall take your place, inferior to yours, then a third kingdom, of bronze, which shall rule over the whole earth.  There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; it shall break in pieces and subdue all these others, just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything else. The feet and toes you saw, partly of clay and partly of iron, mean that it shall be a divided kingdom, but yet have some of the hardness of iron. As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile,  and the toes partly iron and partly clay, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.  The iron mixed with clay means that they shall seal their alliances by intermarriage, but they shall not stay united, any more than iron mixes with clay.  In the lifetime of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people; rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever.  That is the meaning of the stone you saw hewn from the mountain without a hand being put to it, which broke in pieces the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God has revealed to the king what shall be in the future; this is exactly what you dreamed, and its meaning is sure.” (Daniel 2:36-45)

 

Yes, it is a kingdom, not of this world, but in the world; the kingdom of Christ, one of love, justice, unity, freedom, truth, and peace…Christ is the presence of God the Father on earth, the Rock who saves us. Jesus says, "Whoever sees me sees the one who sent me." (John 12:45)

 

Then, as mentioned previously, the rock in the desert, which Moses hit with his crosier, and from which water came out, to quench the desperate thirst of the Israelites in the desert, (Exodus 17: 6.b), becomes the image of Christ hanging on the Cross, the Rock from whose side flows the waters of re-generation, of a New Life.

 

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.  (John 19: 32-34)

 

This Rock, who is Christ, is also the Living Temple or the Spiritual Building of whom the Church forms part of, as living stones. (1 Peter 2:5)  The 'Temple' is put to death on the Cross, only to rise again on the third day.

 

Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."

(John 2:19)

 

From this 'Temple' the refreshing and healing waters flow, bringing New Life to all who drink from them, making them fruitful messengers and healers, yes even 'wounded healers', [2] where the polluted waters are freshened.

 

Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and there! I saw water flowing out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east. The water flowed out toward the right side of the temple to the south of the altar...He brought me to the bank of the river and had me sit down.  As I was returning, I saw along the bank of the river a great many trees on each side. He said to me, “This water flows out into the eastern district, runs down into the Arabah and empties into the polluted waters of the sea to freshen them. Wherever it flows, the river teems with every kind of living creature; fish will abound. Where these waters flow they refresh; everything lives where the river goes...Along each bank of the river every kind of fruit tree will grow; their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fresh fruit because the waters of the river flow out from the sanctuary. Their fruit is used for food, and their leaves for healing. (Ezekiel 47:1.6b.9.12)

 

It is a water that will quench our existential thirst for meaning, like the living, renewing water that Christ offers to the Samaritan woman while healing her of the "polluted waters":

 

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;  but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.”  The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, "I do not have a husband."  For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” (John 4: 13 b-18).

 

She, who had an unfulfilling life, having lived with a number of men, was certainly in need a of change in her life, and she found it in Christ, who offered her a New Beginning in the refreshing living waters, waters that welled up in her, to a point of leading her to announce the good news to her people.

 

These are also the waters that quench her existential thirst as it does us, as we all have deep down, the need to have the meaning of life met, which can only be filled satisfactorily, by the Holy Spirit that Christ pours into our heart. It is that 7th Day, that completes our 6th Day, in order to reach our full self, to our fullest potential, as desired by God. (Genesis 2:2)

 

On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’ ” He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive.

(John 7: 37-39)

 

These living waters will free also the paralyzed man in the pool at Bethesda connected with the temple, as Jesus heals us of our spiritual paralysis of fear, anxiety, stagnation…

 

Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate, a pool called, in Hebrew, Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. (John 5: 2-16)

 

 

They are the waters empowered by Jesus, as he descends into the water of the Jordan:

 

It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

(Mark 1:9-12)

 

And there are the waters that wash us clean of our sins as expressed at the last supper. We must bear in mind, sandals back then picked up all sorts of unpleasant stuff off the streets, and not just dirt. Imagine what the animals leave behind on the roads and people's spittle and...well, use your imagination! Anyone who has been places where modern ways have not reached, as I have, know what I mean. It was in fact the role of slaves, to wash people's feet as they entered a house.

 

Jesus took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. (John 13: 4b-5)

 

But these same saving waters cures the blind man at the pool of Siloam, as our eyes of faith are opened, and for those who say they see, in their arrogance, become blinded to the truth:

 

Jesus said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed, and came back able to see...When Jesus heard that they (the Pharisees) had thrown him out of the temple, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him. Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”  Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains. (John 9:7. 35-40)

 

The blind man was kicked out of the temple as Christians were many years later. But no longer will it be necessary to praise in the temple of Jerusalem, as this will be destroyed. It is in Christ, the New Temple that people can now worship in spirit and truth.

 

The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.  Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”  Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem... The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.”  Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.” (John 2:19b-22.24-26)

 

As a matter of fact, the physical temple would be totally destroyed by the Romans many years later, as prophesied by Jesus, that not a stone on stone would remain.

 

“You see all these things, do you not? Amen, I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:2)

 

Now, at the foot of the Cross is Mary, the perfect image of Church, the true disciple and example for every follower of Christ, starting with John, the holy women, the good thief (Luke 23:40-43) and the centurion who recognized Jesus to be the Son of God (Matthew 27:54). So we see the Church, the New Temple, the new City of Jerusalem being born at the foot of the Cross, which symbolically becomes the building of living stones, with Christ as the capstone.

 

Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)

 

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2: 19-22)

 

The Church now is the Sacrament of Christ, so that those who see the Church, even with its woundedness, sees Christ throughout time…Yes, after all, Christ rose from the dead, with His wounds visible, which are still present in a sinful limited Church, but accompanied by the Spirit. And it is the Spirit, who produces great saintly followers and who guides the Church despite its failures.

 

Christ, the foundational Rock, establishes his leadership on earth, to guide the Church throughout time, the Building of living stones, the growing mountain. Simon, is renamed Peter (Petrus, Rock), by Jesus, so as to carry out in His name, throughout history and throughout the world, the leadership of his Church. As Jesus says to Simon Peter, it is upon this Rock, that he will build His Church.

 

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) .

 

Even this first leader, Simon Peter, as we know, had his limitations, starting from trying to convince Jesus not to go up to Jerusalem immediately after being proclaimed the one on which the Church would be built.

 

"From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

(Matthew 16:21-23)

 

Also later on when he would deny knowing Jesus during the Passion.

 

While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest's maids came along. Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him and said, “You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” But he denied it saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” So he went out into the outer court. Then the cock crowed. The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.”  Once again he denied it. A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, “Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean.”  He began to curse and to swear, “I do not know this man about whom you are talking.”  And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.” He broke down and wept.

(Mark 14: 66-72)

 

Throughout the History of Salvation, which doesn't end with the arrival of Jesus but continues today, God carries on speaking to us through these same symbols like that of rock and water.

 

Think, for instance, of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who appears to St. Juan Diego on Mt. Tepeyac in 1531, which has a stream of water flowing from it, or Our Lady of Lujan, Argentina, by the river Lujan, since 1590, or Our Lady of Velankani in India by the sea, also in the sixteenth century, or Our Lady of Lourdes, who spoke with St. Bernadette in 1858 at a stone grotto and, from which healing waters flow even today. Think also of Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, during the miracle of sun, when people were drenched in the rain. No doubt these are just a few significant stories, in our journey of faith through time. These are all Marian stories. Let us not forget that Mary and Church are bonded together, as one throughout time. The history of the Church is the continuation of the History of Salvation, the 'growing mountain'.

 

The Church prepares us to live in the "New Jerusalem" created for us by God.[3]

 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:1)

 

8. THE CROSS AND ITS CONNECTION

WITH THE HOLY TRINITY

 

INDEX

 

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