"The wood of the
Cross became the vehicle for our redemption, just as the tree from which it was
fashioned had occasioned the fall of our first parents. Suffering and death,
which had been a consequence of sin, were to become the very means by which sin
was vanquished. The Innocent Lamb was slain on the altar of the Cross, and yet
from the immolation of the victim new life burst forth: the power of
evil was destroyed by the power of self-sacrificing love.
The Cross, then, is
something far greater and more mysterious than it first appears. It
is indeed an instrument of torture, suffering and defeat, but at the same time
it expresses the complete transformation, the definitive reversal of these evils,
that is what makes it the most eloquent symbol of hope that the world has ever
seen. It speaks to all who suffer – the oppressed, the sick,
the poor, the outcast, the victims of violence – and offers them hope that God
can transform their suffering into joy, their isolation into communion, their
death into life. It offers unlimited hope to our fallen world."
Pope Benedict XVI
[This is just one of 1200 quotations you will find in Forgotten Truths To Set Faith Afire! - Words to Challenge, Inspire and Instruct]