Lent with the Early Church Fathers Day 35

Day 35

Lent with the Early Church Fathers

A daily post from Tom Bandy 

Based on Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers (Eds. Christopher D. Hudson, J. Alan Sharrer, and Lindsay Vanker: Hendrickson Press, 1999) 

Mysterious cross 

St. Ambrose 

O the divine mystery of that cross! Weakness hangs on it, power is freed by it, evil is nailed to it, and triumphal trophies are raised toward it. One saint said: “Pierce my flesh with nails for fear of the.” He doesn’t mean nails of iron, but of fear and faith. For the chains of righteousness are stronger than those of punishment. Peter’s faith bound him when he followed the Lord as far as the high priest hall. No person had bound him, and punishment didn’t free him. His faith bound him. Prayer fed him.  

Do you also crucify sin so that you can die to sin? Those who die to sin live to God. Do you live for him who didn’t even spare his own son so that he could crucify our sins in his body? For Christ died for us that we could live in his received body. Therefore, our guilt and not our life died in him who, it is said, “bare our sins in his own body on the tree; that being set free from our sins we might live in righteousness, by the wound of whose stripes we are healed.” 

TGB: The most difficult bonds to break are the self-destructive habits we chronically deny. Lent is a time for radical self-awareness, but the goal is not feel guilty, but rather believe we have been set free and receive grace so that we might remain free.