The meaning of the Cross--Pope Benedict

The Holy Father probes the meaning of the Cross and Suffering  in his book,"Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two." The Holy Father attempts to find a theological reason for the suffering of Christ while emphasizing at the same time that Cross is a mystery beyond our comprehension.
In the following  words, we find a cogent explanation of the  meaning of the suffering of Christ.It has often baffled people why Jesus could not save mankind through a miracle instead of going through the abyss of such a great suffering.
"One thing was astonishingly clear: with the cross of Christ, the old Temple sacrifices were definitively surpassed.Something new had happened."
"The Temple sacrifces, the cultic heart of Torah were a thing of the past.Christ had taken their place.The Temple remained a venerable place of prayer and proclamation.Its sacrifices, though, were no longer relevant for Christians."
In Romans 3;25, St.Paul draws upon a tradition of the earliest Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem, referring to the Crucified Jesus as "hilasterion."(the name given to the covering of the Ark of Covenant on which the expiatory blood was sprinkled on the great day of atonement....)
Christians interepreted it in a different way:"It is not through the blood of animals touching a holy object that God and man are reconciled.In Jesus' passion , all the filth of the world touches the infinitely pure one, the soul of Jesus Christ, and hence, the Son of God himself.
While it is usually the case that anything unclean touching something clean renders it unclean, here it is the other way around: when the world, with all the injustice and cruelty make  it unclean, comes into contact with the infinitely pure one--then the pure one, is the stronger. Through  this contact, the filth of  the world is truly absorbed, wiped out, and transformed in the pain of the infinite love.
The reality of evil and injustice ---this reality exists, through our sin.it cannot be simply be ignored; it must be addressed.but here it is not a cruel God demanding the infinite.it is exactly the opposite.God himself  becomes the locus of reconciliation.God himself "drinks the cup" of every horror to the dregs and thereby restores justice through the greatness of his love, which through suffering , transforms darkness.
"Obedience had replaced the Temple sacrifices here;living within and on the basis of God's word had been recognized as the right way to worship God....Prayer, the self-opening of the human spirit to God, is true worship.God is rightly venerated when we live in obedience to his word and hence thororoughly shaped by his will, thoroughly godly."
Again and again our obedience proves patchy.Our own will imposes itself repeatedly.The logos himself, the Son, becomes flesh :he takes on a human body.In this way a new obedience becomes possible, an obedience that surpasses all human fulfillment of the commandments...Only the incarnate Word, whose love is fulfilled on the Cross, is perfect obedience.Our own morality is insufficient for the proper worship of God.
The Incarnate one bears us all within himself and in this way he gives what we ourselves would not able able to give.
What does this means for me?What does it mean for my path as a human being?
The mystery of the Cross does not simply confront us; rather, it draws us in and gives a new value to our life.
Paul in his letter to the Romans,Ch.12: ..".Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God..."
It is our physical existence that must be penetrated by the word and must become a gift to God.
True worship is the living human being, who has become a total answer to God.and true priesthood is therefore the ministry of word and sacrament that transforms people into an offering to God and makes the cosmos into praise and thanksgiving to the Creator and Redeemer.
In the trials of our life we are slowly burned clean; we can become bread, to the extent that the mystery of Chrsit is communicated through  our life and suffering...
Ultimately the Cross is a mystery that defies analysis in terms of our rational  formulae.the darkness and irratioanlity of sin and the holiness of God, too dazzling for our eyes, come together in the  Cross, transcending our power of understanding.
The mystery of atonement is not to be sacrifieced on the altar of overweening rationalsism."the Son of Man  came  not be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."(Mk.10:45)