9-14-25 Exaltation of the Holy Cross
It was on
Sept. 14th in the year 335 that the relics of the true cross of
Christ, which had been discovered 9 years before, were brought out in front of
the newly built Church of the Holy Sepulcher for public veneration. This feast of the Exaltation of the Cross falls
only once every 7 years on a Sunday and otherwise occurs only during weekly
masses. On this day we honor the symbol
of our salvation and price it cost Lord to bring this about.1 St. Paul in his writings referring to the cross itself says “...it
is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the gentiles (1 Corinthians
1:23). Why?
Because for the Jews of Lord’s time to die by being hanged on a tree or
on a cross meant that one was cursed by Lord.
And to the gentiles, they mocked the Christians for worshipping someone
who met with such a horrible and undignified type of death. How could such a
one as Christ be a means of salvation.2 When we look upon the cross ourselves, so many centuries later
now, how do we see it today? It looks
down upon us every time we come into a Catholic church. Even at the door of the church as Catholics,
we dip our fingers in the holy water and bless ourselves in the sign of a
cross. When we begin mass, we bless
ourselves in the sign of this cross.
When we begin a prayer meeting, we bless ourselves in this shape of a
cross. Often, we do it so automatically,
we may miss the realization of what it represents. We may often fail to realize that “What is
redemptive (i.e., about what this symbol of the cross means) is a faith that believes that God
can snatch victory out of defeat, life out of death, and hope out of despair.”3
Is
that the kind of faith and trust we carry in our minds and hearts when we look
upon the cross? And when we look at the
personal crosses that we may endure in lives, health, loss of job,
imprisonment, loss of a spouse, etc. is our faith grounded in that belief for
ourselves? Some may look at the cross as the price that
Christ had to pay in order for us to go to heaven. But I think in terms of payment, that the
cross represents the cost Christ was willing to endure for the life he chose to
live both in being born into humanity and for what he did for humanity. His goodness was a challenge against the
evilness of men’s minds and actions. His
cross is the result of man’s failure to notice and accept the goodness that Lord
is willing to offer if are willing to believe. So often when Jesus healed someone, he said it was because of
their faith in him that they were healed.
His goodness (i.e., the miracles
he performed, the words of his preaching, and the healings by which he set
people free) challenged the status quo among the leadership of his own people
and challenged the power of intimidation among the occupying force of Rome. It challenged both in such way that they
decided he needed to be destroyed. And
so, at the time of Jesus’s arrest and
subsequent crucifixion, the high priest of the temple, Caiaphas, said to the
governing body of the Sanhedrin “..it is better for
you (i.e., the nation) that one man should die instead of the people, so that
the whole nation may not perish.” (John11:50). And yet even as Caiaphas was stating and
planning this, in terms of Jesus’ death, God had a greater plan that was being fulfilled in what Lord
was offering to do by surrendering his
life for the nation “.…. and not only for the nation, but also to gather
into one the dispersed children of Lord.” (John 50:52) And the method of Jesus's death had to be done in a way that all the
people would see that Jesus was not the
savior he reported himself to be, but rather he was someone cursed by Lord. And
so, they crucified him feeling that the ancient prophesy “cursed be (one) who is hung on a tree.” (Deut.
21:22-23) would be the judgement of all
the people concerning Jesus. But
that tree, the cross, bore quite different fruit than they intended. For that tree, was not the tree of death but rather, it was the Tree of Life, for all humanity. By his sacrifice “… the Lord proves
his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then,
since we are now justified by his blood, will
we be saved through him” (Romans5:9) There was a famous opera singer who, after a severe personal loss, went
to India in search of peace. There she visited the famous Indian poet,
Rabindranath Tagore, whose works had been a source of inspiration to her. When
it came time for her to leave, she asked Tagore if he would like her to sing
him a song. The poet was delighted, of course, and waited to hear what song she
had chosen for the occasion. As the song began, Tagore and a second guest were
startled to hear the words of an old “Spiritual” fill the air: Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there? …
Oh, sometimes my heart begins to tremble. Were you there when they crucified my
Lord?” The second guest was so
touched by the experience that when he went to bed he lay awake long past
midnight, looking out at the stars and thinking of the song and the scene it
referred to — the scene at Calvary that had taken place under those same stars
so many centuries before. And he
wondered if he would have had the courage to stand by the Master ’s side, not
when the crowds were shouting “Hosanna,” but when the wild mob was crying,
“Crucify Him,” and when his pierced hands and feet were dripping crimson
lifeblood would he stand by the cross. The
words haunted him: “Were you there when
they crucified my Lord?”3 And
so, the next time you gaze up the cross or bless yourself, in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, pause for just a moment to
remember, and to say- Thank You Jesus.
A Divine
Trade
"As someone once noted: He took what was ours as though it were His
And gave that which was His as though it was ours. What he was not, He became, so, that We might become what We were not.”4
1. 1. https://Catholicpreaching.com (adapted)
2. 2.Ibid
3. 3.James
H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree
(Orbis Press, 2013), 150.
4. 4.Sunday Sermons: Williams ,C.E., “The Dark Road
To Triumph” (adapted
