“Look around, and see what the world presents of high and low. Go to the court of princes. See the treasure and skill of all nations brought together to honour [the children of men]. Observe the prostration of the many before the few. Consider the form and ceremonial, the pomp, the state, the circumstance; and the vain-glory. Do you wish to know the worth of it all? look at the Cross of Christ.
“Go to the political world: see nation jealous of nation, trade rivalling trade, armies and fleets matched against each other. Survey the various ranks of the community, its parties and their contests, the strivings of the ambitious, the intrigues of the crafty. What is the end of all this turmoil? the grave. What is the measure? the Cross.
“Go, again, to the world of intellect and science: consider the wonderful discoveries which the human mind is making, the variety of arts to which its discoveries give rise, the all but miracles by which it shows its power; and next, the pride and confidence of reason, and the absorbing devotion of thought to transitory objects, which is the consequence. Would you form a right judgment of all this? look at the Cross.
“Again: look at misery, look at poverty and destitution, look at oppression and captivity; go where food is scanty, and lodging unhealthy. Consider pain and suffering, diseases long or violent, all that is frightful and revolting. Would you know how to rate all these? gaze upon the Cross.
“Thus in the Cross, and Him who hung upon it, all things meet; all things subserve it, all things need it. It is their centre and their interpretation. For [Christ, this Holy Week, the most Holy Week,] was lifted up upon it, that He might draw all men and all things unto Him.”
"The Cross of Christ, The Measure of the World: Sixth Sunday of Lent" in John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, San Francisco: Ignatius, 1997, 1240-1241.
Plinthos: The Cross of Christ gives meaning to this world. That is why all men need the Mass and the Catholic sacraments above every thing in the world. The Mass, the administration of the seven sacraments, and public Catholic worship are not “dispensable, non-essential activity.” To say that would be a terrible blasphemy, because the right worship of God is the only essential work!, because the Cross of Christ is the meaning of the world. It is the meaning of every true nobility, of every wealth, of every real power, of all knowledge and technology; it gives meaning to every poverty, to every sickness, to every death and to every life. And the Mass is the trans-historical holy sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, every spiritual gift comes to the world from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. People need the Mass! The world needs the Mass. The Church Herself, all men united to God, in spirit and in truth, comes from the Mass. Ecclesia Ipsa de Eucharistia est!
This, my Palm Sunday sermon, I delivered today at the end of the Missa Cantata which is available online here. Go to minute 1:47:05 for the sermon.
