Let us not recoil at the sight and sound of the crucifixion. It is the battlefield of victory. It is the throne of the King. It is the symbol of salvation.
Christianity is not principally about ethics. It was the Cross on the Hill rather than the Sermon on the Mount which produced the impact of Christianity upon the world.
The Church becomes anti-church when the new world order Christ inaugurated by eliminating demographic division through the commonality of Baptism is exploded by allegiance to cults of personality.
Human history and especially the Christian life have a shape, and Jesus is its shaper at every point, infusing even the mundane and the difficult with sanctifying purposes, ultimate meaning, and enduring hope.
Therefore, on the cusp of Christmas the message of the fourth week in Advent heightens our anticipation and joy, but also the unvarnished truth about the challenge of following the crucified King.
More than that, as children of the One who is the Resurrection and the eternal Life, as children who have themselves been both justified and regenerated, live as if Christ has already reappeared, as if the parousia has happened.
We of all people, because of Christ, can build securely on the future because the truth of Christ runs from the past to the present, establishing a most certain future.