Reflections 2006
Tree of life

The “Triumph of the Cross” is celebrated each year on 14 September. It is connected with the other festivals of the Crucifixion – Good Friday and the Sacred Heart, which is why red vestments are worn on this day. The date marks the day of the consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 335AD, an event, which involved the use of a relic from the True Cross, found on that very site by Saint Helena.

The Cross is venerated even where relics of the True Cross are not available. The solemn adoration of the Cross in our Good Friday liturgies originated in Jerusalem involving the true relics, but the practice has spread to the entire Christian world, venerating representations of the Cross as if they were the True Cross itself. On Good Friday, in all our parishes, the crucifix is held up and the priest proclaims: “This is the wood of the cross, on which hung the Saviour of the world.”

As important as the relics of the True Cross are – for they point to the fact that Christ was indeed crucified at a particular time in history and that his blood actually stained a specific piece of wood – nevertheless, the Cross is perhaps even more important to us as a symbol than as a relic. As a symbol, it has become synonymous with Christianity.

The very earliest Christians did not display representations of the Cross as we do today, because in the ancient world the cross was a thing of shame. It represented a horrific and shameful execution. It was so shameful that the law forbade the execution of Roman citizens in this way (which was why Saint Paul, a citizen, was beheaded, whereas Saint Peter was crucified).

Although the Cross was a symbol of shame and suffering, Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Church in Galatia: “God forbid that I should glory in anything, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Gal 6:13)

The earliest Christians did draw the sign of the Cross, but invisibly on themselves and on each other. Tertullian, a Christian writer in the 2nd Century, wrote that “at every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes...in all the ordinary actions of everyday life, we trace the sign.”

After Saint Helena’s son Constantine (the first Christian Emperor) banned crucifixion in 337AD, the Cross slowly ceased to be a symbol of shame, and began to take its central place in Christian artwork. But to understand why the feast we celebrate on September 14 is called the “Triumph of the Cross,” we need to keep in mind both the original shame that the Cross represented, and the glory which, with Saint Paul, we now find in the very same Cross.

It may help for us to consider that in both Scripture and Tradition the Cross is often called “the tree.” On Good Friday, in fact, we sing an ancient song on this theme:

“Faithful Cross! Above all other,
One and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be.
(Pange Lingua, St Venantius Fortunatus, 6th cent.)

When we trace the use of the word “tree” through the Scriptures, we find three main images that all join up in a wondrous way to explain the meaning the Cross has for us.

The first tree is the “Tree of Life.” This was placed in the Garden of Eden together with the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” from which Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. After this first sin, God hastened to evict Adam and Eve from the Garden – not as a punishment, but because he feared “lest the man put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever.” (Gen 3:22) The effect of this would have been to make sinners (and thus also sin) immortal. For it is a fact that death, while being the result of sin, is also the limit that brings an end to sin.

The second tree is the Cross of Christ. The New Testament often uses “tree” rather than “cross” (eg. Acts 10:39 “they put him to death by hanging him on a tree.”) Saint Paul reminds us that the ancient Jewish law declared: “Cursed be anyone who is hanged on a tree.” (Gal 3:13) Jesus thus came under this curse. Yet, Saint Peter explains more clearly what was involved: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24) Jesus accepted the “curse” we should have received, and underwent death in our place – precisely so that we might not die but live.

The third tree is also called the “Tree of Life”, and it is reported by John, who saw it in the heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation. This Tree is so full of life that it bears fruit once every month, and “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Rev 22:2) All who have “conquered” in faith (Rev 2:7) and who have “washed their robes” in baptism (Rev 22:14) may enter the heavenly city and eat from the Tree of Life.

The Triumph of the Cross is therefore the expulsion from Eden reversed! Through the Tree of the Cross, sin is forgiven, death is defeated, and life is restored, as the Preface from the Mass of the day proclaims:
“Father…you decreed that man should be saved through the wood of the cross. The tree of man’s defeat became his tree of victory; where life was lost, there life has been restored.”

So for us, the Cross is the Tree of Life, the very source of life itself. Why then do so many today still reject the Cross as a thing of shame and horror? At the handing over of the World Youth Day Cross to the Australian pilgrims on Palm Sunday this year, Pope Benedict attempted to articulate this modern rejection of the Cross:

“[It is] said, the Cross is the sign of the denial of life. Instead, we want life in its entirety, without restrictions and without sacrifices. We want to live, all we want is to live.” He goes on: “The Cross itself is the true Tree of Life. We do not find life by possessing it, but by giving it. Love is a gift of oneself, and for this reason it is the way of true life symbolised by the Cross."

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.