SATURDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Feast of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Nm 21: 4-9 Ps 78: 1-2, 34-38 Phil 2: 6-11 Jn 3: 13-1 7
THE CROSS IS A SIGN OF LOVE AND HEALING
Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Our readings today aim to point us to a deeper understanding of the significance of the cross, both in the corporate and broader impact it has on the Church but also on the impact and significance of the cross in our own lives. The Cross is the sign of the Christian. Every Christian, the little child as well as the great saint, makes the sign of the Cross, bearing witness to its permanent significance. We may tend to think of the cross as a symbol of pain, suffering, punishment maybe even a symbol of our healing or our salvation. Those are all appropriate and even helpful, but today on the feast of the Holy Cross, we must think about it as a symbol of love, of healing and of power. Jesus sacrificed his life on the Cross and thus redeemed the human race. It is therefore no more a symbol of suffering and disgrace, but of salvation.
The Cross is a symbol of love. It is what God the Father chose as the means of showing his love for us. His Son Jesus bears the cross and shows us how much he loves us by stretching himself on it. Jesus Christ humbles himself out of love for us on the cross. But this becomes even more amazing when we realize that we were the ones who deserved to be on the cross. In the history of Christianity the Cross on which Christ the Lord died and through which he came to the Resurrection, has become the eminent sign of God’s saving action. The Fathers of the Church compare the Cross of Christ with the tree of life in the earthly paradise, with the Ark of Noah, with the wood that Isaac carried to mount Moriah, with Jacob’s ladder, with the staff of Moses, and with the bronze serpent. All these are intimately linked with the mystery of salvation.
The first reading and the Gospel remind us that the cross is a symbol that God gives for healing. When the Israelites were bitten by a serpent in the desert, they only had to look at the bronze serpent that was exalted and they would be healed. This healing was God showing mercy to the Israelites. How? It was because the Israelites sinned and complained, that God sent the serpents in the first place. It was the just punishment for their sin and for forgetting God’s love and goodness. As the Psalm says, ‘Their heart was not steadfast toward him, they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he being compassionate atoned for their iniquity’ (Ps 78:37-38). We see God’s mercy to the Israelites, but we also see this mercy being given to us through Jesus on the cross and we sometimes take it for granted. The appropriate response is to go to the cross of Christ and draw healing for our souls there, to go to confession and the Eucharist regularly and find healing and strength in the blood of Christ poured out upon that Holy Cross. In Baptism every Christian is crucified with Christ, dies and rises with Christ. St Leo the Great says, “The Cross of Christ is the source of every blessing, the fountain of all merit: to the faithful it gives strength from His weakness, glory from His shame, and life from His death.”
Finally, there is power in the Cross of Christ. We might not associate the Cross with power, but remember that Christ defeated Satan with this instrument. The Cross scares the devil and he flees. There are two ways of drawing on the power of the Cross. One is to bring the most difficult things in our life, the most difficult experiences or people or situations and in prayer place them at the foot of the cross. As the psalm says ‘Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you’ (Ps 55:22), so let us cast them to the foot of the Cross, find grace there to be free of them and let Jesus sustain us. The second way is to pick up your own cross and follow him. Picking up our cross can mean some difficult thing we have been avoiding but we know God wants us to do, some aspect of holiness that the Lord is trying to make us grow in. The focus is on drawing near and following Jesus because by the power of His Cross alone are we truly free.
May the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross brings us closer to the Cross of Christ both in understanding its significance and living in the power we find through it.
Response: Never forget the deeds of the Lord!
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