The Unity Cross
"On the cross, when Jesus endured in his own flesh the dramatic encounter of the sin of the world and God's mercy, he could feel at his feet the consoling presence of his mother and his friend."
- Pope Francis, Joy of the Gospel, #285
This month's Sacred Art for our contemplation has been called both the Cross of Compassion and the Unity Cross.
The Unity Cross was first conceived as a symbol of the first generation of Chilean priests. The first Pallottine seminarians were about to be ordained as priests and they wanted to give something to the Shrine of Bellavista in Chile, which had so beautifully fed their life of faith.
Though the Unity Cross has since taken different forms, it's the steady and intimate gaze of Christ and Mary that remains at the heart of this work. It is a mystical and beautiful meditation on the gaze of not only a son for his mother, but of the Bridegroom for his Bride, the Church. As Pope Emeritus Benedict has written, "In the Eucharist a communion takes place that corresponds to the union of man and woman in marriage. Just as they become "one flesh", so in Communion we all become "one spirit", one person, with Christ. (Pope Benedict XVI, The Spirit of the Liturgy (p. 142).
Here is the entirety of the Plan of God, here is the quintessence of Salvation History: the man gives his life for the woman, arms wide open in a posture of complete self-donation and self emptying, and the woman receives that gift of self in the golden chalice of her own being, keeping "all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.." (Luke 2:19) She in her turn becomes superabundantly fruitful, being now the New Eve, the Mother of All the Living in Spirit and in Truth.
May we allow this Plan of Love, this Unity cross our own hearts and mark them as members of this family born of self-gift, born of the love of the man and the woman. In His Love, may we all be one! And one too with the heart of Mary, whose compassion, born from the suffering she felt here at the cross, touches even the darkest areas of our own hearts, and our own wounds.
"There is a Marian 'style' to the Church's work of evangelization. Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness."- Pope Francis, Joy of the Gospel, #288
Bill Donaghy is an instructor, speaker and a full-time employee of the Theology of the Body Institute. Bill holds an Associate's Degree in Visual Arts and received his Bachelors in Philosophy and a Masters in Systematic Theology from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. He and his wife, Rebecca, have three children and live in the Philadelphia area.
