“Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” ~ Jesus of Nazareth

This is my crucifix there are many like it but this one is mine, to barrow from the Marine Corps’ Rifleman’s Creed. One of the greatest lines ever, how could you not be tempted to steal it? I have had this particular crucifix for more than thirty years. The cross is simple but nicely finished and the corpus is bronze. It is elegant but very solid and simple all at once. However it is the bronze corpus that has my imagination and causes my deeper meditation on it.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” ~ Jesus of Nazareth

The Israelites grumbled against God in the wilderness because they were not happy with their rations and God took offense with their blasphemies. The consequence of their sin was to be tormented by fiery serpents whose bites were painful and deadly. Many died from the bites which caused the people to repent. So Moses interceded on behalf of the people before God and God offered a remedy for the snake bites. God instructed Moses to make a snake out of bronze and put it high on a pole and promised that any who looked on the snake would be healed. So the thing that was the cause of suffering became the object that healed and saved them.

“Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned.” ~ St. Paul

God made man in his likeness and image we are told and placed him in a garden. God gave man charge of the garden and gave him a help mate. A perfect man and woman living in God’s perfect grace not knowing sin, pain or death. But the man did not follow the commands God gave him and sinned which is rebellion. The result of the rebellion was the loss of grace with the punishment of pain and suffering.

“Take your son, your only son, whom you love [Isaac] and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” ~ The Lord to Abraham

The sacrifice of Isaac is a prefigure of the sacrifice of our Most Blessed Lord at Calvary. Isaac was the only and beloved son of Abraham and Sarah and he bore the wood for his own sacrifice on his back just as Jesus carried his cross. When the sacrificial pyre was readied Isaac asked his father where the lamb was for the sacrifice and Abraham replied,”God will provide one.”

“… when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps for an only child.” ~ Zechariah

The atonement for the sin and fallen nature of man required the sacrifice of a perfect man but not just any man but a God – Man. So God lowered himself down from Heaven and took the form of a Man offering himself, on the same mountain as Abraham offered Isaac, to restore fallen man to a state of Sanctifying Grace.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” ~ St. John

Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent for the suffering to look upon, so was the Son of Man lifted up to heal our greatest wound. All who look upon him, pierced for our sins, will be saved.

And that is what I see when I look at my crucifix.