Cross serves as ultimate sign of God’s love
Numbers 21:4b-9
Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38
Philippians 2:6-11
John 3:13-17
Ordinary Time Sundays have an interesting quality that distinguishes them from the Sundays of other seasons in the liturgical calendar. When a feast of the Lord or a solemnity falls on a Sunday of Ordinary Time, it takes precedence over the Ordinary Time Sunday. This happens a number of occasions this year. Today’s feast, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, is a feast of the Lord because it holds up for our adoration the very instrument of our salvation. The cross of Jesus Christ triumphs over sin and death and accomplishes the redemption promised.
The act of crucifixion was an extreme form of the Roman manner of punishment, a way of creating an awareness of the power of the Roman emperor and his armies. When Romans wanted to show their might, they used the cross as a form of public expression of their dominance. Students of Latin and Roman history recall tales of its use and the cruelty of Roman emperors who wanted to impress their guests even at dinner parties. Capital punishment could be simple and straightforward for Roman citizens (Paul’s beheading with a sword) or brutal, as happened to Jesus and to other disciples who did not have such status (Peter and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew and Matthias, just to name a few).
Romans also had a custom for emperors and generals who were returning to the City of Rome to be honored for their victories, which was called a triumph. This involved a public parade down the Via Sacra in the Roman Forum, publicly displaying various spoils, both material and human, that were won by the victorious general. It is the irony of the turns of history that now we celebrate such a triumph, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The paschal mystery transforms suffering and death into the promise of Resurrection for all who will follow the Way of the Cross with the Lord.
Our celebration is not meant to show human victories but God’s victory on behalf of human beings over sin and death. Paul’s letter to the Philippians quotes an ancient Christian hymn, highlighting the role of the Cross. “Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” From there, Paul expresses the Father’s response to the humility shown by Jesus’ embracing of His human estate in its completeness, to the point of death and the humiliation of the crucifixion. “God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The Cross triumphs and we acknowledge its power, not as something outside ourselves but as something we are called to live. As Christians, we live under the sign of the Cross. Every sacramental encounter is an expression of its triumph. Our sufferings are to be united to the Cross. As many religious sisters told little children in their care when they encountered difficulties in life’s journey: “Offer it up!” We embrace our own crosses and so share in the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of Christ.
The essential reality of the mystery of the Cross is God’s love for His creation and for all His creatures, especially humanity. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” We are saved through the Paschal Mystery, the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus the Lord.
“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your Cross you have redeemed the world!”
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