Just come down from the cross

Avoiding the cross is the essence of the demonic. When finally our Lord was on the cross, Satan had one last chance to be anti-crucial. Through his agents he challenged the Lord, 'Come down and we will believe.' Believe? Sure. In what? The Trinity? Yeah, sure. In the hypostatic union? Yes. That he's the Son of God? Yes. That he made Peter the rock of his Church? Certainly. That he will send the Spirit? Sure. That he will rise from the dead? Sure. Anything-just come down and we will believe. Jesus did not come down. Had he come down, he never would have saved us. It's human to come down. It's divine to hang there. Consider the softness of the Church today: the desire to accommodate herself in the world, shrinking away from sacrifice, self-denial. We have today in the Christian world a new dirty word, but it doesn't have four letters. The new dirty word has five: c-r-o-s-s.  Christ without the cross? Sure--anyone will accept that.