Redefining the Cross in Cebu    

             By Glenn Trajano

The Cross for Christians embodies scores of paradox. On one hand, humiliation, pain, suffering, and death describe the passion of Christ on the cross. On the other, love, forgiveness and salvation characterize the ultimate meaning of Christ’s crucifixion.

No doubt that the former attributes can compel everybody to have the same opinion. But the latter may appear to be foolish in the eyes of a cerebral mind. It seems rather to contradict the tradition of the Continental thought which gave primacy over reason and justice, typical expression of its long-held morality.

In his widely acclaimed Who Told You That You Were Naked, John Jacob Raub interprets the crucifixion in a rather different way. “The cross,” he said, “appears to symbolize pain, but it actually symbolizes the shedding of pain. That shedding of pain is however painful.” It is like, “Letting go of suffering necessarily involves suffering!”

Interpreting the reality of human suffering in the light of philosophical-mystical perspectives, Raub’s masterpiece contains ironical insights. He says, “Condemning wrong and rewarding right gives security.” This security is built on the scheme of reward and punishment. A sinner should be punished while the righteous should be rewarded.

Such scheme describes the prevailing phenomenon of “our world.” An offshoot of this schema is to see God as a God of war, as a God who should punish people.

Yesterday, the Archdiocese of Cebu headed by the beloved Cardinal Ricardo Vidal cordially welcomed the arrival of the World Youth Day Cross in Mactan International Airport from Australia. It will be handed to Cagayan de Oro diocese tomorrow March 3.

The wooden Cross, measuring of about seventh-feet tall and 10-inch-sized anterior, was enthroned first at the Cebu Cathedral at 12:00 noon with the Eucharistic celebration. It was subsequently followed by a motorcade going to the Archbishop Residence along D. Jakosalem St. at 2:00 pm for public veneration.

The theme of the public veneration of the World Youth Day Cross, “Jesus Ko, Paglaum Ko” (My Jesus, My Hope) essentially attests what Raub says about the radical meaning of the cross.

The cross has been traveling throughout the different countries around the world to signal the current preparation for the World Youth Day celebration.

Painted in pure dark brown, the traveling cross has been widely known to be a symbol of hope in the midst of stark reality of war and hatred.

The cross had visited Germany in 1992 at the site of the famous broken wall of Berlin, a wall that formerly divided East and West Germany. It was erected also in 1994 at the war-torn Ruwanda and Burundi in Africa, at the close of the massive genocide resulting from the hatred between Tutsis and the Hutus.

It reached also to South Korea in 2000, at the “no-man’s zone”, the critical line that separates the North from South Korea. That cross was also at the ground zero of the World Trade Center, at the site where people mourned for the victims of the September 21 terrorist attack.

Giving his message last night to around two thousand crowds during the public veneration at the Archbishop Residence, Fr. Chris Ryan, a World Youth Day 2008 Australian national organizer, recalled his experiences with the travelling cross around the world as “an unforgettable moment in history”.

Echoing the late Pope John Paul II, renowned in conceiving the World Youth Day Cross, Fr. Ryan said that the cross is a “symbol of God’s love for humanity.” He then asked the Filipino people, “to rediscover the love of Christ in the cross.”

Following the speech was his Eminence Cardinal Ricardo Vidal. The Archbishop of Cebu mentioned that the prevailing temptation of the young people in modern times is “impatience and immediacy.”

In an age marked by consumerism and materialism, the Cardinal emphasized that “instant gratification” characterizes the preferences of the young today. He said that “exercise of freedom without responsibility has been highly rampant among the young people.”

The Cardinal then points out that, “Delaying gratification means taking up one’s cross. It may appear as a heavy, burdening act, but at the heart of it lies the true and lasting source of happiness.”

The visit of the World Youth Day Cross in Cebu has indeed illumined the minds and hearts of the people especially the young who attended at the veneration about the essential meaning of the cross in their lives.

The traveling cross radically calls everyone to love and forgive, or as the Cardinal specified, “to conquer hatred with love”.

John Jacob Raub further notes, “By the cross we change our way of thinking and accept our true identity, our true self. That change of mind about who our God is and then who we are is itself the cross. Carrying that cross radically breaks the ties with our idols. It is painful yet joyful, hurting yet liberating.”

The visit of World Youth Day Cross in Cebu reminds everyone to see the reality of life not as a sign of condemnation or punishment but rather as a sign of opportunity and hope. It is an opportunity, in what Raub says, to let go of “the world of our idols if one wants to be free.”

The World Youth Day Cross indeed summons everyone especially the young people to see themselves as ultimate sign of God’s love, of a God who always wants His children to be free in Her love.

trajanoglenn@yahoo.com

-27 years old, he is an aspirant to the Missionaries of Africa, a congregation of priests and brothers aimed at helping build the Church in African continent. He currently studies his Master of Arts in Philosophy at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City