799 discourse vi: the glorious cross DISCOURSE VI The Glorious Cross And it was the third hour, when they crucified [H]im. (Mk 15:25) In times past, nothing proved to be more disgraceful than the punishment of the cross, as the accounts of the preceding ages have taught us most clearly. In the annals of the kings, there is recorded a most infamous and odious example of such a shameful death. A great famine for three continuous years afflicted the territories under the stewardship of King David. Having consulted the oracle of the Lord, the King learned that the Israelites were to be punished with that affliction on account of the slaughter of the Gibeonites accomplished through the foolish zeal of Saul. For which reason, in order to placate the wrath of God, he called the Gibeonites to ask what they desired to be done to the wicked for their unjust destruction. He endeavored [to carry it out]: “They said to the king, ‘The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them up before the LORD at Gibeon on the mountain of the LORD’” (2 Sam 21:5-6). There couldn’t have been a more severe revenge of the slaughter of innocent people than by the most calamitous punishment of the lineage of Saul raised on crosses. Indeed, it was ordained that this most justified disgrace fell upon the sons and descendants of Saul, who did not have the honor of perishing by the sword (as befits heroes in battle) but died on the cross. And what kind of crime did the Son of God, our Lord and Savior, commit that the punishment of the cross would be most insistently demanded for Him by the Jewish people? He did nothing that deserved punishment by the cross — nothing. But He wished to destroy by His death the ignominy of the cross and to render it most glorious by repairing the damage of the tree [of Eden] on the tree [of the Cross]. By His Blood, He consecrated it and rendered it exceedingly noble.
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