An Adventure

Questions are not necessarily welcome. Locked behind barred doors for fear of others (John 20,19), it’s dangerous stepping outside, because “if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring).

We readily limit the significance of the cross to an emblem to consolidate a religious or cultural identity, not as indicative of my search for truth, which can be merely subjective, conditioned by an inability to question: does this suffice for a Christian? 

Laying the old life behind in the mists, we venture into the light. This adventure intends to explore the Magister’s assertion: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14,6). No, the cross is not an excuse to enhance our misery because “misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows” (William Shakespeare, The Tempest II.2).

The cross’s significance highlights our baptism because, as pointed out by Saint Augustine, all those who belong to Jesus Christ are fastened with him to the cross, which sets the stage for Bonhoeffer's assertion that the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. Venturing forward in our adventure, “All that is gold does not glitter; not all those who wander are lost” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring).

Martin


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