Transforming Sermonson "The repulsive scandal of the cross"

Milton Stanley quotes a true Fool right here!

Behold!

It is God's utterly repulsive solution to the problem of our sin. The thing is, our own coping strategies are never as foolish as God's or as scandalously humiliating. Oh, we may be willing perhaps to sacrifice something, but never as God sacrificed. That's insane, and it's awful, and our instinct is to cry, no, the situation can't be quite that bad. Because the most scandalous, the most awful and repulsive part is this: it was all on our behalf. It was the only solution to the problem that we created.

Jack Nicholson delivered one of Cinema's most lines in the movie A Few Good Men: "You can't handle the truth!" I find a fitting paraphrase of this often describes the reaction of many people to Christ's sacrifice: They can't handle mercy!

It makes sense. Mercy has been the greatest scandal of the Cross since Christ dies upon it. How could God so condescend his own greatness and actually die on a tree like a common criminal? Why would he do it for the very people he rightly condemned? These questions have scandalized the world from the very beginning. Even some Christians today struggle with Christ's mercy. It's only natural to do so.

Christ's sacrifice, after all, was supernatural.

Only Christ, as the Son of God, could take upon himself the guilt of all people of all time. Only he could find a way to love such people. Only he could pay the price that God the Father had said humanity owed on account of everybody's sin. How could any act of love for one's enemies be anything other than a miracle?

It can't. That's why the Catholic Church refers to Christ's passion and death as the Paschal Mystery. It defies mere reason, even as logical analogies offer some grasp of it's enigma. The bottom line is, Christ, through his sacrifice, bestowed the Father's love and mercy on us all. And often, we can't handle that.

Because that means we have to do the same. We need to share his mercy to those that have wronged us. We need to forgive those who've hurt us. Even when they don't even acknowledge that they've wronged us. Christ's executors never apologized to him. Few of us have on our own, either. Therefore, witholding the mercy he's shown us to other because they don't seek our pardon isn't an option.

And that's a problem. We want the satisfaction of an apology. We want those who've hurt us to at least recognize that they've done so. We want justice. Too often, we think mercy means we sacrifice justice.

And sometimes, we just don't want to forgive. We want those the tresspass against us to feel us tresspass right back. We want revenge.

Mercy means we have to hang all those on the cross of forgiveness. Except justice; surprisingly, mercy is the greatest fulfillment of justice.

The fact is: we can't come to grips with Christ's abundant mercy. We can barely forgive others for their minor transgressions against us. How can God possibly forgive us for the sins we've committed against him and his goodness?

We can't handle mercy.

This should never be an excuse not to try! Christ awaits us with open arms. He did not show us mercy to eternally confuse us. He showed us mercy to love us fully. And to give us the opportunity to love him fully in return. We need to live that opportunity every day by opening ourselves to the mystery of Christ's mercy. Then we need to pass it on. As painful as that is. We'll be glad when we did.

Because then we'll handle mercy. And we'll then live in gratitude for eternity!