16th May

Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. Psalm 66, 16

(Paul) says: "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6, 14

The world without the cross?

One of the unbelievers wrote: "Erase, by the thought, everything which remains of this influence in the fields of beautiful, of truth and of good. Enter the museums and take the image of Christ away from the walls. Remove the statues which represent martyrs or apostles. Delete composers like Haendel, Bach and a lot of others. Expurgate the works of Beethoven and Mozart of all that was inspired by the Christian religion. Remove Bossuet and Pascal; remove "Polyeucte" with Corneille, "Athalie" with Racine; persecute the name of Christ in the verses of Lamartine and Victor Hugo. Erase all the traces which the sacrifice of Jesus left. When this work is achieved, turn yourselves around and look at the vacuum which is made by this cross which is less in the world".

What the author does not say, is that there is something which is more significant than all the literature or works of art which evoke Christ: these are the million human beings who have been purified by the blood of Jesus. While The earth with all its works will disappear for always (2 Peter 3, 10), they will eternally remain as monuments of grace to the glory of Jesus, the Saviour who God has given to us.