The Cross Is a Book

Watching a video by Bobby Jose Kattikad ofm Cap on the “Cross of Christ” (https://youtu.be/wouU58uqS-0?si=JS1Il-fagR8Fr0Cy) was an eye-opener to me. St. Francis of Assisi beautifully referred to the cross as "My Book". The cross is a profound "book" filled with dynamic, life-altering pages. Everything Francis understood about life, love, and sacrifice was read and absorbed from the pages of this ultimate book. By immersing himself deeply into the love of the Crucified One, he internalised its teachings so profoundly that the very wounds of Christ (the Stigmata) were imprinted upon him.

John of the Cross has read this book and found it a source of light in the darkest cells. John was imprisoned in a tiny, dark cell for nine months. Despite his intense physical and emotional suffering, he meditated deeply on the cross. From that utter darkness, the cross offered him the radiant spiritual light that eventually birthed his classic work, The Dark Night of the Soul. The book talks about stripping away of worldly desires, physical attachments; the ego, intellect, and spiritual comforts; and most importantly, during which the individual often feels entirely abandoned by God and a profound spiritual desolation and darkness.

The Cross does not bypass but confronts the pain. Human beings are born into and continually plagued by various fears—rejection, loneliness, and the unpredictable nature of the future. The cross is our raised sign, like the bronze serpent raised of Moses. Instead of running away, bypassing, or numbing our pain, the cross invites us to look directly at it. Looking at His ultimate vulnerability helps us face our own fears and grants us a peace that the world simply cannot give or take away.

The Cross tells us that you are passionately loved. If the cross is a book, its core message, echoing from the two wooden beams, is a resounding that you are passionately loved. God loved humanity to such an unimaginable extent that He surrendered His only Son. Every time you are misunderstood, abandoned, or challenged by the world, open this ‘book’. Look at the cross and remind yourself of its supreme truth: you are deeply, unconditionally, and passionately loved.

The Book of the Gospel is deeply verbal. It is filled with brilliant discourses, captivating parables, and fierce debates. It appeals to our intellect and our imagination. The book of the cross is starkly silent. In the face of His passion, Jesus barely speaks. When words are exhausted, or when human pain is too deep for language, the Book of the Cross speaks through presence, solidarity, and suffering. Reading both teaches us that spiritual maturity requires both the active engagement of the Word and the contemplative, silent surrender of the Cross.

The Book of the Gospel frequently displays God’s power in ways humans easily recognise and applaud: healing the sick, multiplying bread, and calming violent storms. It is a book of miracles. The Book of the Cross completely overthrows our understanding of power. Here, divine power is revealed as ultimate vulnerability, weakness, and self-emptying (kenosis). God allows Himself to be broken by the world's violence rather than using violence to subdue the world.

The Book of the Gospel introduces a radical new way to live; one based on radical inclusion, justice for the poor, and mercy. The Book of the Cross demonstrates what happens when that radical Kingdom collides with the entrenched power structures of this world. Living a truly Gospel-centred life will inevitably invite resistance, hardship, and a "cross" of one's own.

Ultimately, the most crucial conclusion of reading them in parallel is that they are deeply incomplete without each other. The Gospel without the Cross becomes merely a collection of beautiful moral philosophies or utopian ideals, lacking the ultimate proof of God's solidarity with human suffering. The Cross without the Gospel is just another tragic story of a good man crushed by a brutal empire, lacking the context of the coming Kingdom and the hope of resurrection.

Comments

New Year, New Beginning

The past year was different to different people. Some of us were very successful, won every battle we fought. Some others of us did not win every battle that we fought, might have found difficult even to get up from bed everyday, we just survived. But for both it is a new year. For those very successful, it is time to stand on the ground and not be overconfident, complacent, arrogant and egoistic. And it is also time to give back. And for those of us not very successful we have another new year with 365 blank pages, 365 blank days. It is a fresh new beginning. Start your dream and go all the way. “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth—not going all the way, and not starting”, said Buddha. Every New Year tells that we cannot eternally postpone important things in our lives. We must begin somewhere. How many lives do we have on this earth? One, two, three, four, or more? One of the foremost thinkers and philosophers of China, Confucius, four centuries before ...

2025 Must Create Its Own Art

People are afraid of art, because real art brings the question and the answer into your house. Tonight’s art becomes inadequate and useless when the sun rises in the morning. The mistake lies not in creating art for tonight, but in assuming tonight’s answers will serve tomorrow’s questions. Louise Bourgeois, a French American artist, reflected, “art is a guaranty of sanity;” but that guarantee must be renewed with each dawn, each cultural shift, and each evolution of human consciousness. If some art endures through generations, it is only because of its capacity to speak, its ability to demand fresh interpretations that test and challenge the new. To guarantee sanity in the coming year, 2025 must create its own art. Why create art? Why watch art? Why read literature? True art, in the words of Sunil P Ilayidam, shakes that which is rigid and unchangeable. Art serves as humanity’s persistent earthquake, destabilising comfortable certainties and creating space for new ways of...

Fine Ways of Disregarding Vital Issues

Observing the preoccupations of Pharisees, scribes and religious leaders of his time (Mark 7: 1-23) Jesus commended that they have fine ways of disregarding the commandments of God in order to maintain human traditions and interests. They put aside weightier matters to uphold human decrees. In modern politics we hear the jargon, ‘politics of distraction’. In a country of mass illiteracy and unemployment, farmers’ suicide, etc. politicians and other key people divert public attention by discussing building temples, girls wearing hijab to college, etc. Noam Chomsky, an American social commentator says, “The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.” The corrupt politicians must have learned this strategy from the pickpockets (or is it visa versa): they di...

Human Empowerment Vs Technological Determinism

This article, Seeking truth in a barrage of biases , presents an inspiring call to action for maintaining our intellectual autonomy in the digital age. Written by J Jehoson Jiresh, it addresses the critical challenge of navigating through algorithmic biases and misinformation while offering hope and practical solutions. The author beautifully frames our modern predicament - how even a simple online search for running shoes can shape our digital landscape - and transforms this everyday observation into a powerful message about reclaiming our agency in the digital world. What's particularly inspiring is the article's emphasis on human empowerment rather than technological determinism. The article presents three key strategies for hope and change: Active critical engagement to question assumptions and challenge biases Seeking diverse perspectives to break free from our echo chambers Demanding transparency and accountability in algorithmic systems Most uplifting is the article...

Zacchaeus’ Last Will

Zacchaeus, as we know, was a chief tax collector and a rich man (Luke 19: 1-10). He, as any tax collectors of his time would do, used to collect much more than due, even by force and violence. Now we might say, in a very self-justifying manner, that I am not a tax collector, thus this gospel does not concern my life and me. The figures of a survey done on taxes; taxpayers and tax collectors could be quite embarrassing. 72% people do not pay taxes fully or partially. They cheat the country and the government. 26% of people pay the full tax, not because they love their country and its development but because of fear of being caught and punished; they are in a search of completely safe ways of evading taxes. The rest 2% are involved in collecting taxes. They cheat the country and people by collecting more and not correctly accounting for it. That leaves us with a 100% of ‘Zacchaeuses’ in our societies. Thus most of us stand in need of salvation for our families and ourselves. Zacchae...

Religion Must Help Greater Acceptance And Not Control

What if you see people who never came to your church or never were part of the universal Church found with God; forgiven by god, loved by god, helped by god, and even pampered by god? Our average human spirit and mind will feel a bit of discomfort and repulsion. That exactly is what is happening with apostle John in Mark 9: 38-41. Membership in a religion in many phases in history, and religious practices like praying, church-going etc. has become tools and means of exercising superiority and control over others, or it becomes a means to exclude people. In the name of religion and religious practices we take control of what can be done, who can do it, what is good and bad, what is moral and what is immoral. This approach creates an exclusive moral, good, pure, and authentic race or people or group. We keep doing it as individuals and institutions for the fear of losing control over others. And that is the end of humanity. Stopping others from doing good comes from a sickening clo...

Great Teachers Create Vocal Students

Picture a classroom where questions are met with impatience, where unique perspectives are dismissed, where vulnerable thoughts are cut short. Gradually, hands stop rising, eyes avoid contact, and the once-vibrant space becomes a vacuum of missed opportunities and untapped potential. This silence is not respect—it is retreat, it is a silent protest, and it is dissent. When teachers fail to listen, they unwittingly construct invisible barriers. Students quickly sense when their contributions hold no value, when their voices are merely tolerated rather than treasured. The natural response is self-preservation through silence. Why risk sharing when no one is truly receiving? This silent classroom is a warning sign. A teacher who does not listen will soon be surrounded by students who do not speak. Andy Stanley has spoken about it on leadership, "a leader who does not listen will gradually be surrounded by people who do not speak." It is true in every field, including educatio...

Inter-religious Sensitivity in the Time of Covid-19

I was religiously pleased and humanly excited to read the story of a Hindu doctor reciting Kalima Shahada for a dying Muslim Covid patient in Kerala. Beevathu, 56 year old, was all isolated from her family in a covid ward. She had been there for 17 days, she was on a ventilator, and it was increasingly clear that there was no hope. After the consent from her family she was taken off from the ventilator. Beevathu lies there between life and death. Nothing more to happen. But like any good dying Muslim, she perhaps wanted to hear the Kalima Shahada (the Islamic oath of faith) to be chanted to her by one of her family members; but there was none, the situation made it so. Dr. Rekha, a Hindu doctor, was attending to her all these days. She knew what was happening, and she also knew what was not happening. Dr. Rekha knew the words of Kalima Shahada , thanks to her upbringing in UAE. She went close to Beevathu’s bed chanted into her ears, “ La ilaha illallah Muhammadur rasulullah...

Jesus Sends Seventy-Two To Meet And Get Transformed

For a person of faith, ‘God comes, ever comes’ is a constant experience; logically, it also means that God goes, ever goes to the other. We read in Romans, “God came to save us when we were still sinners.” At another point of time in history we were the other to whom God came. Throughout his earthly journey, Jesus demonstrated a radical commitment to crossing boundaries, meeting others. This wasn't merely a strategy for spreading his message—it was a fundamental aspect of his vision for humanity. He didn't establish a comfortable base and wait for people to come to him. Instead, he was constantly moving—crossing territorial boundaries, cultural divides, and social barriers. He didn't try to change people from a distance through arguments or condemnation. He shared meals with tax collectors, conversed with Samaritan women, touched lepers, and welcomed children. Each encounter was an act of radical hospitality that said, you matter and your story matters. Jesus didn't k...

SPRINGBOARDS and WALKING STICKS

Search This Blog