Cruciform Logic

In George MacDonald's wonderful story "The Princess and Curdie", the young man Curdie is trying to determine whether he had a real or a dream encounter with a great Princess. He doubts the reality of the encounter because he saw her change from one form to another.

His wise mother has this to say in reply to his doubts:
"'Of course,' answered his mother, 'it is not for me to say whether you were dreaming or not if you were doubtful of it yourself; but it doesn't make me think I am dreaming when in the summer I hold in my hand the bunch of sweet peas that make my heart glad with their colour and scent, and remember the dry, withered-looking little thing I dibbled into the hole in the same spot in the spring. I only think how wonderful and lovely it all is. It is just as full of reason as it is of wonder.'"

I don't think it an unfair stretch to say that this is the logic of the Cross. The Apostles wondered how the Crucified One could be the Risen One. Today we wonder how dying to ourselves can bring us to True Life.

It disconcerts us when the inner logic of things is laid bare in such moments of transformation or "double vision". I will never forget travelling with a group of fellow parishioners on pilgrimage. En route we stopped to pick up a Hermit. It was mid November and it had begun to snow heavily with high winds by the time we arrived at his hermitage. He is a small frail, old man and my first thought was that the skirling wind might carry him off like a leaf. Yet even as I looked at him I felt things shift and saw him to be immovably centred, anchored in the Cross. I will try to remember him this Lent for he, like the Risen One he serves is "just as full of reason as he is of wonder."