1. God’s Plan For Creation III 1. The Holy Cross of Jesus Christ is at the heart of life, at the heart of EVERYTHING. 2. Recall Handel’s “Messiah” [quoting the prophet Isaiah]: “Behold and see…if there be any sorrow, like unto His sorrow…”. And: “He looked for someone to comfort Him…but there was no man”.

2. 3. EVERY SINGLE MOMENT, EVERY SECOND of our lives has meaning!!! Not only is human life NOT “meaningless”, as the modern and post-modern nihilists say. But exactly the opposite is true: every moment of our life is FULL OF MEANING!!! FULL of SIGNIFICANCE!!! How? Why?

3. 4. Recall that God is ETERNAL. He has always existed and He always will exist…He is completely transcendent from His creation and…“outside of time”. 5. As a result, when we humbly accept the crosses and sufferings in our life and offer them up to the Lord, we can, in a very real sense, COMFORT CHRIST ON THE CROSS!!!

4. 6. There is an eternal aspect to the Crucifixion of Christ [recall the theology of the Church regarding Holy Mass: “truly present at the Crucifixion” and “re- presentation” of Calvary]. Because Christ is God and God is “outside of time”, there is a very real sense in which the sufferings of Christ and the Crucifixion of Christ have a timeless/eternal quality.

5. 7. This is NOT to say that Christ is in any way still suffering. He is NOT still suffering. Jesus Christ, as a human person, lived on this earth approximately two thousand years ago and He suffered and died for our sins. He does not continue to suffer.

6. 8. BUT: Jesus Christ IS God as well as a human person. And so there is a very deep mystery here, which we cannot ever fully comprehend. He no longer suffers as a human person. True. And, of course, God Himself does not ever “suffer”. But, as God, there is a timeless aspect to the sufferings of the Man-God on the Cross, a timeless quality to His redemptive act.

7. 9. When we suffer, we can offer up our sufferings to the Lord and BE THE GOOD THIEF! We can turn to Christ and COMFORT Him in His suffering. AND… CO-REDEEM with Him. Every moment of our life is FULL OF meaning, FULL OF significance!!!