By: Wendy Kachermeyer

During my life time I have been inside many different Christian churches. The inside of the buildings I have been witness too were usually very simple in adornment and usually painted or wallpapered with a welcoming earth tone and always very clean and tidy. Sometimes there would be a small metal or wooden cross (large enough to see from the back of the room) hanging on the wall behind the preacher. The love of our dear Jesus can be so understated sometimes that people forget the trueness of what happened to our dear Lord for every one of us.

Wendy Kachermeyer

I have had the great privilege of being in many Catholic Churches, a couple of Basilicas and a couple of Cathedrals. There were very modest humble churches, great big churches filled with elaborate embellishments and ornamentations; it was magnificent to be engulfed by the beauty of each.

The most beautiful presence in a Catholic church is the Blessed Sacrament then it is the Crucifix. No matter how humble or elaborate each church is the Crucifix is easily found. Not just a handsomely made cross but the beaten bloody body of our dearest Christ fastened to an instrument of torcher and hanging so everyone who enters the building can see God’s love for them.

Catholics hold up the cross. We remember Christ’s death on the cross and how God humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend. (Philippians 2)

Reflection of the Cross,

The Roman soldier was very good at crucifixion. Maybe we would use the words skilled, talented, and endowed with the ability to force the body of a convicted outsider to fit the cross and be hung on a hill on the outskirts of town for all visitors to see what happens to non-Romans when they cross the leaders at hand. The convicted would carry their tree through the city filled with embarrassment and shame being spit upon, stones thrown, names being called as the soldiers whipped and screamed about their strength giving out. “Get up!! Get moving!! We don’t have all day it’s almost time for lunch!!!” As they approach the hill you can hear the connecting of hammer to nail and screams of pain from those who marched before them. Now it is their turn to suffer the consequences of being guilty of a crime in ancient Rome.

Crucifixion: The left hand being pierced by a nail with a sudden sharpness of pain which runs straight through the body at the sound of a guttural shriek that comes from the depth of a soul. The right hand doesn’t quite meet the mark of penetrating the wood so they disjoint the shoulder to make the hand reach. The nail being pounded in doesn’t really hurt because the pain within the shoulder is numbing. Nailing feet is a little more difficult. The soldiers hold one foot down and strike the nail until it come all the way through the flesh then place it on top of the other and nail both feet to the triangle that will hold the body on to the cross until death. After hanging until almost dead the vultures start flying circles above and begin to feed on the body before what the Romans wanted to accomplish is completed.

Why is this beautiful? It is who, which makes it so beautiful! Christ took on all sin forever at His crucifixion. Not just for that moment in time but forever, for you, for me and for the world. And what is even better is He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and this same crucifixion is before us at every sacrifice of the Holy Mass.

For the conclusion of this reflection read Psalm 22 and bring to mind Christ and what He overcame for every human being.

Wendy Kachermeyer is Director of Religious Education and R.C.I.A (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, Dunkirk, NY , email comments to Wendy at reledseas@yahoo.com