COMMENTARY.
The reason why our Lord chose the death of the Cross. 1 . Because He thereby offered the most complete satisfaction for our Sins. Man had offended God by a disobedience which sprang from pride, when he desired to “be like unto God”. The Divine Redeemer atoned for this pride by choosing the most painful and ignominious of deaths. Under the Old Law, the body of an executed criminal was hung upon a cross as a token that such a man was cursed of God and rejected by the people; and yet Jesus suffered Himself to be hung on the Cross when alive! For this reason St. Paul writes thus (Gal. 3, 13): “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law (i. e. from sin), being made a curse for us: for it is written (Deut. 21, 23): ‘Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree’.” By thus dying on the Cross, our Divine Saviour abased Himself as far as He could, so as to offer satisfaction for our pride. In like manner He atoned for our disobedience, for He became “obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross” (Phil. 2, 8). 2. Our Lord chose to die on the Cross to show His unbounded love for us in a way which we could not mistake, and to move our hearts to love Him in return. When on the Cross, our Blessed Lord suffered the severest torments of Soul and Body, pouring out His Blood for our sakes, slowly, and drop by drop. “He hath loved us,” writes St. John,“ and washed us from our sins in His Blood” (Apoc. 1, 5). “See”, says St. Augustine, “see the wounds of the Crucified, the Blood of the dying, the ransom paid by the Redeemer; His Head is bowed down to kiss us; His Heart is opened to love us; His Arms are spread to embrace us; His whole Body is given to save us!”
The Cross the Sign of Redemption. It stands upon the earth and raises itself towards heaven, to signify that our Lord, when lifted up and hanging on the Cross between heaven and earth, purified this sinful earth and reconciled it to heaven. The four arms of the Cross signify the universality of Redemption, all men being saved by Christ crucified. They are symbols of the four parts of the world, pointing, when the Cross is laid down, to the north and south and east and west, and signifying that all men, all over the face of the globe, have a share in the fruits of Redemption. In the Cross alone is salvation, and from it flow all graces and blessings. Thus it is that in all her benedictions the Church makes use of the sign of the Cross: and whenever a Catholic makes the sign of the Cross, he confesses his faith in the crucified Son of God.
Prophecies fulfilled by the Death of Jesus on the Cross:
1. That of David (Ps. 21, 17 19): “They have dug My Hands and My Feet. . . . They parted My garments amongst them, and upon My vesture they cast lots.”
