Kneeling before the Cross...

Here's my homily from this morning's Mass on the Holy Cross in our lives as a Seminary community.

So here we are, three weeks into the semester.  And if the usual dynamics have begun to set in, many of us have begun to become Israelites, with their patience worn out by the journey. 

“Why have you brought us back from summer vacation to work in this wretched place, where there is no beach or ocean?  Just classes and meetings and pastoral assignments and more meetings and early mornings and hours and hours in that chapel! We are disgusted with all this work!”

And while God the Almighty and merciful will probably not punish our complaints with saraph serpents, he does give us a sign.  The sign of the one lifted up on a cross, emptied for us, humbled and obedient unto death. 

And all we have to do is bend the knee to him, look up at him, confess him, and we will be saved.  Saved from our petty complaints and and pitiable groanings.  

Yeah, it takes a lot to get used to a new spiritual director.  Yeah, that philosophy stuff can be very hard to wrap your mind around.  Yeah, that guy next door plays the music too loud and the one on the other side snores so loud you can hear it in Brighton Center.  And yeah, there’s a lot to drive you crazy around here.
But yeah, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…that all who kneel and gaze upon him may be saved.