Letter 82

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: The Church at Milan Date: ~395 AD Context: A meditation on the finding of the True Cross by Empress Helena [the mother of Constantine, who according to tradition discovered the cross of Christ in Jerusalem around 326-328 AD], interpreting the event both historically and allegorically. Ambrose to the faithful. Helena, mother of Constantine, went to Jerusalem and found the cross [according to the tradition that Ambrose helped popularize in the West, Helena identified the True Cross among three crosses excavated at Golgotha through a miracle — the true cross healed a dying woman]. This was not mere archaeology. It was revelation. The cross had been buried — deliberately, by those who wished to erase the memory of Christ's death and resurrection. The pagan authorities who buried it thought they were destroying its power. Instead, they were preserving it, as a seed is preserved in the earth until the time of its sprouting. Helena found the cross and sent one of the nails to her son Constantine, who had it fashioned into a bridle for his horse [a tradition that the nail was incorporated into the imperial diadem or horse's bridle]. This is rich in meaning: the instrument of Christ's humiliation became the instrument of imperial authority. The nail that pinned God to the wood now guided the horse of the Christian emperor. Power submitted to the cross; the cross guided power. The discovery of the cross teaches us that nothing God has done is ever truly lost. The cross was buried for nearly three centuries, and yet it emerged intact. The faith itself has been buried, repeatedly, under persecution and heresy and indifference — and yet it emerges, always, because the God who raised Christ from the dead will not allow the sign of that resurrection to remain buried. Carry the cross in your hearts, brothers and sisters. It is not a symbol of defeat but of victory — the only victory that defeats death itself. Farewell.

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