Reflection: The Divine Design

Catholic Online ^ | 7/24/08 | Deacon Keith Fournier

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For the Christian, the center from which the Divine design proceeds within the fabric of our own lives- and through which we begin to discern the beauty of God’s perfect plan - is the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is the central patch of cloth from which the pattern proceeds. It is also where the pattern returns. However, seeing this pattern requires ongoing conversion.

We need the eyes that can only come through living faith. We need the strength to pull ourselves up by grasping the wood. It is only there where we begin to see that the threads all form a pattern woven by love.

The Early Christian Fathers beautifully reflected upon the Cross in so many of their writings. The Cross was often presented as a “second tree” at which the new creation began again in Jesus Christ. On that Cross, the Living Word, through whom the Universe was created, re-created it all anew. One early monk, Theodore the Studite, an eighth century Abbot of the undivided Church of the First Christian Millennium, once proclaimed:

“How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.

“This was the tree on which Christ, like a King on a chariot, destroyed the devil, the Lord of death, and freed the human race from his tyranny. This was the tree upon which the Lord, like a brave warrior wounded in hands, feet and side, healed the wounds of sin ...

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Living faith mediates the mystery of God’s loving plan and opens our spiritual eyes to behold the Divine Design.