Interior of the Church of the Light
Tadao Andō, 1999

My dear friends,

As we enter more deeply into Holy Week, the Apostle Paul invites us to see the cross—not merely as an ancient instrument of death, but as a gateway to divine wisdom. In today’s reading, we are asked to surrender the wisdom of this world for something that appears, at first, as foolishness: a crucified Christ, a Savior who redeems not by force but through love poured out in weakness. Let us walk the path of the cross together and discover its hidden power.

The cross seems absurd to the mind trapped in self-preservation. Why embrace suffering? Why love those who betray you? Yet in Christ, the cross is transformed—from an instrument of torture into a symbol of liberation. As with Bodhicitta—the awakened heart of compassion in the Buddhist tradition—the cross reveals that the true path to freedom comes not through domination, but through self-giving love. It is the paradox of divine wisdom: power through surrender, life through death.

Human wisdom, built on competition, pride, and the illusion of separateness, cannot perceive the truth of the cross. God overturns our expectations, not to shame us, but to awaken us. As the ego’s schemes fall away, we are invited to see with new eyes—the eyes of the heart, where wisdom flows from love and union with the divine will.

True knowing—gnosis—does not arise through debate or mental cleverness, but through the surrender of the heart. This is the heart of bodhicitta, and it is the very mind of Christ. Belief is not blind acceptance but trust born of love. The wisdom of the world seeks control; the wisdom of God seeks communion.

We want signs of victory or systems of logic. But God gives us a broken man nailed to wood. This stumbling block is the very stone the builders rejected—and it becomes the cornerstone. For those who live from ego, the cross offends. But to those whose hearts have begun to awaken, it is beauty beyond comprehension.

Christ crucified is not a failure to be explained away. He is the revelation of God’s deepest wisdom: that love is stronger than death, and that the one who bears the suffering of all becomes the healer of all. Here we see the Bodhisattva heart, fully revealed in the flesh of our world.

The love that forgives from the cross is more powerful than any empire. The apparent weakness of Christ is stronger than the might of armies. Like the silent empty cross above many Reformed altars, the risen Christ is unseen but present—His strength flows through those who seem weakest, and His wisdom is known in the quiet hearts that dare to love.

You were not called because you were strong. You were called because God loves to make the lowly radiant. You were chosen not despite your weakness, but through it. This is the secret of the saints and the Bodhisattvas: that emptiness is the vessel for divine fullness, and humility the throne of Christ.

In Christ, we do not become cleverer or more dominant—we become vessels of wisdom, sanctity, and healing. This is our true boast: not in what we have achieved, but in the love that has remade us. We live because Christ lives in us; we walk the path of the cross, bearing light not for our glory, but for the liberation of all.

As we continue through this Holy Week, may we behold the cross—not with worldly eyes, but with the awakened heart. May we embrace the seeming foolishness of compassion, of forgiveness, of love that bears all things. For this is the wisdom of God, and this is the power that saves the world.