{"id":70520,"date":"2026-04-20T14:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=70520"},"modified":"2026-04-20T14:15:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:15:33","slug":"broken-crosses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/broken-crosses\/","title":{"rendered":"Broken Crosses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Timothy Brunk \/ 20 April 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/20\/world\/middleeast\/israeli-soldier-lebanon-sledgehammer-jesus.html\">reported<\/a> on 20 April 2026 that an Israeli soldier in Lebanon sledgehammered a statue of a crucified Jesus. The story was accompanied by a photograph of the soldier caught in the act. The <em>Times<\/em> quoted Prime Minister Benjamin expressing \u201cregret for any hurt caused \u2018to believers in Lebanon and around the world\u2019\u201d and promising that the Israeli Defense Forces would \u201ctake appropriately harsh disciplinary action against the offender.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Civilian structures of all kinds have been targeted in Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia . . . the abhorrent list goes on. For Christians, a striking feature of this assault is that it was directed at an image of Jesus on a cross. For Christians, Jesus is the one in whom \u201call the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross\u201d (Col. 1:19-20, NRSV). The <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scborromeo.org\/ccc\/para\/545.htm\">Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/a><\/em> hails the crucifixion as the \u201csupreme proof\u201d of Christ\u2019s love for humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I lament the actions of this soldier. Even more, though, I wonder about the ways in which the sins of each and every one of us trample on God\u2019s love for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a meditation on \u201cBroken Crosses,\u201d I invite readers to listen to this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QmE1-Mj94Vs\">song<\/a> by Denise Pyles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TIMOTHY BRUNK&#8211;Broken crosses cause me to reflect on God&#8217;s love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":70522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3116,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-new-ws","category-liturgical-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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