"ON this cross, indeed, the Christian ought to hang continually throughout the whole of this life, which is spent in the midst of trials and temptations. The time, you see, doesn’t come in this life for pulling out the nails, of which it says in the psalm, Let my flesh be transfixed with nails by the fear of you (Ps 119:120). Flesh means the lusts of the flesh; the nails are the commandments of justice; with these the fear of the Lord transfixes those, and crucifies us as a sacrifice acceptable to him. That’s why, again, the apostle says, "And so I beseech you, brothers, by the compassion of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God" (Rom 12:1).
"So this cross, on which the servant of God is not only not put to confusion, but in fact glories in it, saying, "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6:14)."
~St. Augustine: Sermons, 205, 1.
Triptych, by Jacobello Alberegno.
Tempera on panel, 1360-90; Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
