February 13, 2021

It is funny how so much of our human experience is based on concepts.  The world that we see is mediated by certain ideas that have been introduced to us and planted in our minds since we were born.  We don’t just see a cell phone, a car, or a fellow human being, we see an iPhone, a Lexus, and a CEO.  And because all of that stuff and all of those labels obscure what actually is, it is as if we are constantly walking around with scales over our eyes (Acts 9:18) never really seeing the truth of things.  The Cross, upon which hangs the eternal Word, however, is literally a concept-ending machine (cf. Jn 19:30) which has the power to strip away the non-essentials and thus cure us of our pharisaic blindness (Mt 23:16,17,19,24,26). When the interior mechanism of the Cross indeed becomes the singular lens through which we encounter the world around us, purifying fires stream forth from our minds and objects begin appear to us in their naked beauty. We shall thus come to know things as they are as we look forward to spending our eternity exclaiming “Now I see!” (Jn 9:25) with all the saints forever.  Ave Crux, Spes Unica!