This morning we're inundated with all kinds of crosses. Big crosses, little crosses, old crosses, new crosses. Obviously, the message for today has something to do with the cross. But then doesn't every message we hear? And isn't the cross central to our everyday life?

Look at the cross. The Cross it is such a contradiction. It is both a thing of beauty and at the same time, the ugliest instrument of horror and pain ever created. The root words "crucis" and "crucio" from which we get the words cross and crucifixion both mean "torture, torment and to cause great pain." (1)

We look a the cross and we see Torture and Triumph, Passion and Pain. Beauty and Beastliness, all in one. The cross is repulsive and yet it can fill us with hope.

I remember reading through Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gul…