NOTES for Co1 1:23

It is hardly possible to give Christ's death on the Cross any more or less coherent and deep rational explanation, because in it we touch the unfathomable mystery of God's mercy. That is why, in the letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul stresses that the efforts of abstract reasoning, however consistent and noncontradictory it may be, cannot explain the Cross.

A rational explanation of this event would make it something that necessarily follows from definite causes, something regular and lawful. But such an explanation is possible only if one looks at the Cross abstractly, from a distance, without discerning the full reality of the sufferings of the Crucified One. For the apostle, however, something else matters: in the Savior's death on the Cross we see the Living God, who surpasses every lawlike necessity.

The Creator of the world does not remain in impassibility beyond the law, as we would say, "beyond good and evil," but comes to suffering humanity. Without changing the course of history, without remaking humanity by mass hypnosis, He tears apart the bonds of logic and necessity. On the Cross we meet not a Lawgiver with whom one can communicate in legal terms of rights, duties, and retribution, but a living Person. The Cross defeats death not because it frees us from its inevitability. But now we are with Jesus, and for that reason alone there is no longer anything to fear.