Vigils Reading

VICTORY AS THE FRUIT OF SACRIFICE

from a book by Fr. Yves Congar3 ◊◊◊

The victory of the Lamb springs from its sacrifice. This is proclaimed in the canticles of both the elders and the angels: “Worthy are you to take the book and break its seals, for you have been slain and by your blood have purchased for God men from every tribe and tongue, and people and nation.” “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing”.

The Apocalypse in this instance expresses the unanimous theology of the books of the New Testament which unite Christ’s triumph and glory with his humiliation and Passion. The Son of man had to be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up in the desert in order that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “He humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has now lifted him so high and has given him the name beyond all names”. But no words more aptly express the connection between the cross and glory than those in the story of the disciples of Emmaus on the evening of Easter Day: “Was it not fated that the Christ should suffer thus, and then should come into his glory?”.

The factor that is common to these passages is the affirmation of a conjunction between the cross and the self-sacrifice on the one hand, and the power of communicating life on the other… between Good Friday and Easter Day. Thus in our “new creation”, the cross … becomes the true and new tree of life…

This connection between sacrifice and victory, death and life, seems to me to express a kind of inner law that is natural to life “in Christ.” I have been amazed at the constant recurrence of life springing from death, at the foot of the cross, and the cross alone destroys the pride of life in us and releases the energies of that life which is hidden with Christ in God. Trial is the condition of renewal and progress. “For your sake we are killed all the day long; we were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we win an overwhelming victory through him who has proved his love for us”