Friday, April 09, 2004

From The Creed in Slow Motion
by. Msgr. Ronald Knox :
Was Crucified
Here's a small excerpt:
"What would those two men have said, if you'd told them that the cross they had just knocked together out of two planks would be dug up, three hundred years later, and that in honour of that event the punishment of crucifixion would be abolished in the Roman Empire for ever? What would they have said, if you had told them that that cross would be taken away by the Parthians, and demanded back from the Parthians by one of the articles of a peace treaty? That it would be carried into Jerusalem, in solemn procession, on the shoulders of the Emperor himself? That it would be broken up, as time went on, into little pieces, and those pieces would be treasured all over the world, in gold and silver reliquaries, exposed year by year for public adoration? That, all over the world, people would be worshipping in churches marked, inside and outside, with that cross; sacred ministers standing in front of that cross, attired in vestments marked, everywhere, with that cross, making the sign of that cross over a piece of bread marked with that cross? That school-boys and schoolgirls would see the figure of that cross in the rooms where they worked, or had their meals, or went to bed; that they would trace the lines of that cross, from forehead to breast, twenty or thirty times a day? All that was what those two men were doing when they knocked two pieces of wood together, that spring morning long ago. The instrument of punishment, used for slaves, so much held in contempt that men would say to one another, 'Oh, go and crucify yourself!' when they were bored or angry, was to shine on the crowns of kings and emperors, was to be the symbol of a religion destined to pervade the world. "

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