As we contemplate the cross of Christ we see Christ “the great high priest” (Heb 4,14) who has taken his place at the altar of the Cross. Jesus is the High Priest who offers his own life as the sacrifice of redemption to cleanse us of our sins and prepare us for a new life, free from sin. Jesus, the great High Priest, lifted up on the Cross, “passed through the heavens” (Heb 4,14) to open the way for us to heaven. We are witnesses to a total oblation of love, a total self-gift, as Jesus lays down his life in love for the forgiveness of sins, the salvation of the world, the beginning of a new life in the Spirit. This love is a love-unto-the-end. “He always loved those who were his own in the world and he loved them to the end.” (John 13: 1b) The sacrifice and gift of love that Jesus offers on the Cross is only fully accomplished when he declares on the Cross: “It is finished.” (John 19: 30)

What is finished is not the life of Jesus – his life will continue on beyond his death – what is finished is his offering of himself in love as the great High Priest. He has given himself fully to the Father. Pope Benedict tells us, “He has accomplished the utter fullness of love – he has given himself.”

This self-offering is an act of total consecration – Jesus, the High Priest, has dedicated himself fully to God. “Jesus has accomplished the act of consecration – the priestly handing-over of himself and the world to God – right to the end.”

In this consecration, this oblation of love, this total self-gift of love Jesus draws all people to God – into his pure, pierced and open heart of love from which flows forth blood and water – the grace of life that springs from sacrifice and sacrament. It is a new act of creation – the creation of the Bride of Christ in the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist – the new Eve given birth from the side of the new Adam.

At the Cross of Christ we are consecrated to live our lives through him, with him and in him, through Christ in God. “Our lives are hidden now with Christ in God.” (Col 3: 3) We are called to a total dedication of our lives to God. “For it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” As St. Paul asserts to the Corinthians: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor 2:2) And: “The message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Cor 1,18,25)
We are washed clean in blood and water – in Baptism and Eucharist – purified in heart and soul, so that we may live in God’s presence and draw our life from the love that flows out of the heart of Jesus, offered on the Cross.

This is the truth which the Spirit witnesses to, our lives are not our own, we have been purchased (1 Cor 6: 19-20), redeemed, by this oblation of love offered on the Cross of Christ – the love-unto-the-end – a love that we must now dedicate our entire lives to living and imitating in our own self-offering to the Father.

The world has put Love and Truth on trial and judged them false, preferring self-love and subjective truth to what God has revealed to us in Jesus the Christ. We must now give a true testimony to the Love of God in Christ and the Truth of the wisdom of life in his Spirit. We are witnesses at this trial of the world. We must offer our lives as a living testimony to new life in Christ. We must now live our lives that have been consecrated by his sacrifice, sanctified by the sprinkling of his blood, as living witnesses to a new life that flows out of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced for our offenses. We must forever draw our life from the Cross of Christ and live his sacrifice in sacrament.
As witnesses we must confess: “Truly this man was the Son of God.” (Mark 15,39) He is self-gifting Love, he is the life-giving Truth. Come let us adore the Cross of Christ and take it up, lifting it anew in the witness of our own lives full of Love and Truth. For we are crucified with him so that we may also live with him. May our lives bear the marks of Christ crucified, a sign of his sacrifice, finished on the Cross, that testifies to our new life in Truth and Love.