Contemplation of the Crucified

"The glorious Cross of Christ sums up the world's sufferings, but it is above all a tangible sign of love, the measure of God's goodness to man. In this place, we too are called to rediscover life's supernatural dimension, to lift our eyes from what is contingent, and to return to complete reliance upon the Lord, with a free heart and in perfect joy, by contemplating the Crucified, that He may wound us with His love.


... It is only by allowing himself to be illumined by the light of God's love that man and the entire creation may be redeemed, that beauty may finally reflect the splendor of the face of Christ, as the moon reflects the sun. The Blood of the Crucified flowing from the glorious Cross vivifies the dried bones of Adam who is in us, so that each of us might rediscover the joy of setting off on the path of sanctity, of climbing upwards, towards God. From this blessed place, I unite myself to the prayer of all Franciscans on earth: "We adore you O Christ and we bless You, because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world."

"...The contemplation of the Crucified is the work of the mind, but it is unable to soar the heights without the support, without the force of love...Brother Bonaventure of Bagnoregio -- the illustrious son of St. Francis -- ...communicates to us his own experience by inviting us to prayer. First, the mind should turn to the Passion of the Lord, since it is the sacrifice of the Cross that blots out our sin, a lack that can only be filled by God's love: "I exhort the reader – he writes – to cry out in prayer through Christ Crucified, whose blood cleanses us of the stain of our sins" (Itinerarium mentis in Deum, Prol. 4). But to be effective, our prayer needs our tears; that is, our interior involvement, our love, which responds to the love of God. Then what is needed is that admiratio, which St. Bonaventure sees in the humble ones of the Gospel, who are capable of experiencing wonder before Christ's saving work. And humility is the door to every virtue. For it is not through the intellectual pride of a search enclosed upon itself that one attains to God, but rather through humility, according to the famous expression of St. Bonaventure: "May [man] not believe that it suffices to read without unction, to speculate without devotion, to investigate without wonder, to examine without exultation, to work without piety, to know without love, to understand without humility, to study without divine grace, to see without wisdom divinely inspired" (ibidem.).

"The contemplation of the Crucified has an extraordinary efficacy, for it causes us to pass from the order of things thought, to that of experience lived; from hoped-for salvation to the sweet and blessed homeland. St. Bonaventure affirms: "He who gazes intently [upon the Crucified] … makes the Passover with Him – that is, the passage (ibid., VII, 2)....St. Francis...tells us, too, that it is not enough to call ourselves Christians to be Christians, nor is it enough to seek to perform good works. We need to conform ourselves to Jesus through a slow, steady commitment to the transformation of our being to the image of the Lord, so that through divine grace, every member of His Body, which is the Church, might show forth the necessary likeness with its Head, Christ the Lord. And we begin this journey -- as the medieval masters teach us on the basis of St. Augustine -- with self-knowledge, with the humility of looking within ourselves with honesty."  --Pope Benedict XVI, (quoted on ZENIT 5-15-2012)