This struck both of us as particularly appropriate for Lent so I thought I'd share it.
Cross the bridge to heaven
In a striking metaphor, St. Ephrem the Syrian imagines
Jesus the carpenter making his own Cross into a bridge
to heaven. Because the tree in Eden brought death, it is
fitting that a tree also brings us to life.
This is the Son of the carpenter, who skillfully made his Cross a bridge over Sheol--Sheol that swallows up all--and brought over mankind into the dwelling of life.
And because it was through the tree that mankind had fallen into Sheol, so upon the tree they passed over into the dwelling of life. Through the tree in which bitterness was tasted, through it also sweetness was tasted; so that we might learn of him that among the creature nothing resists Him.
Glory be to your, who laid your Cross as a bridge over death, that souls might pass over on it from the dwelling of hte dead to the dwelling of life!
St. Ephrem the Syrian, Homily on Our Lord 4
In God's Presence, Consider...
Does it help my resolution to imagine the Cross as a narrow bridge over a gaping chasm?
