A Word For The Haters 

Our Lord spoke from the cross to those who hated, for there are an abundance in the world who cannot endure his name. They hurled a challenge to him. They said, 'If you are the Son of God, come down from that cross.' Come down and we'll believe. Sure, they will believe. They'll believe anything: just no cross, no mortification, no self-denial. This is not weakness to hang on the cross. This is obedience to the law of sacrifice. If he came down, he never would have saved us. It is human to come down. It is divine to hang there. So there are many who say, 'I'll believe anything. I'll believe that he is divine; I'll believe in his Church; I'll believe in his pontiff, only no cross, no sacrifice.' That's all.  George Bernard Shaw said, 'It's that that bars the way.' Sure, it bars the way. It bars the way to hell. And for them our Blessed Lord merely prayed for forgiveness. He said, 'Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.'  It is not wisdom that saves, it is ignorance. If we knew what we were doing when we crucified the Lord, we would never be saved. It is only in the ignorance of what we do when we crucify him that we come within the pale of hearing the cry, forgive.