September 14, The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross is
such an important feast, that when it falls on a Sunday, it replaces the normal
Sunday celebration, which is why I’m wearing red, the color of Good Friday,
instead of Green, the color of ordinary Time.
If something is exalted, it is lifted high for all to see, it is
honored, and so today we lift high the cross, we give honor to the Holy Cross
by which Jesus redeemed the world.
1700 years ago, the Roman Emperor Constantine exercised his
power over the Roman Empire which extended throughout Europe, North Africa, and
the Middle East. Before Constantine was
emperor, it was illegal to be a Christian, you could be arrested or killed just
for gathering for the celebration of Mass.
Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity by issuing the Edict of Milan
in the year 313, which led to the building of churches, Christians could practice
their faith in the open without fear of government persecutation.
The emperor deeply revered the sign of the cross, and wanted
to find the True Cross, the actual across upon which our Lord Jesus was
crucified. In 326, his mother, Helen,
went on behalf of the emperor to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to search
for the True Cross. Because Christianity
had been illegal, Helen found that Christians were not visiting the holy sites
because they had been made into shrines for pagan idols. Over the cave of Bethelehem stood an idol to
the greek God Adonis, over the holy tomb where Jesus had been buried, the site
of his resurrection, was an idol to the roman God Jupiter, and over the site of
the crucifixion, stood a monument to the goddess Venus.
In the name of her son the Emperor Constantine, the pagan
monuments were torn down and were made ready for building of Catholic churches. When they dug underneath the shrine to Venus
on Calvary, not one, but three crosses were found.
So there was a little problem. How do you figure out which was the True
Cross. The Bishop of Jerusalem was a
holy man by the name of Macarius. Bishop
Macarius prayed to God and he received an inspired idea. He had all three crosses brought to the house
of a woman ill to the point of death. He
prayed that God would reveal which cross was the true cross by bringing about a
miraculous healing of this dying woman.
So he touched the first cross to the woman’s skin and nothing happened,
and he touched the second cross to the woman’s skin and nothing happened. But when he touched the third cross to the
woman’s skin, the woman opened her eyes, rose from bed, her health was fully
restored. The true Cross had been found.
Constantine’s mother Helen, who is of course St. Helen, had
a large Church built upon the hill of Calvary, where the holy relic of the True
cross was kept. Centuries later, the
Persian Empire conquered Jerusalem and confiscated the sacred wood of the
cross. The Roman Emperor recovered the
Cross on September 14, 614, and ever since the Church has celebrated this feast
of the exaltation and triumph of the Cross of Christ.
Christians exalt the cross of Christ because it is the
instrument of our salvation, upon it, Jesus Christ shed his blood, that we may
be saved from sin and death. The word
salvation comes from the latin word salvus which means healthy or whole. A salve is used on a wound to heal it. Christ’s blood poured forth from the cross is
the healing balm that heals our souls wounded by sin. The cross is therefore the instrument of our
salvation.
How fitting that the true cross was discovered through a
healing miracle for it is the source of the healing of our souls.
The cross was foreshadowed in our first reading from the
book of numbers today. While wandering
in the desert, the Israelites were bitten by serpents and many died. God provided a remedy however. “Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and
mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
This wasn’t mankind’s first tangle with serpents. Remember
in the Garden of Eden, the devil appeared in the form of a serpent to tempt
Adam and Eve. When they fell to
temptation and sin, the poisonous venom of that serpent infected Adam and Eve,
but their children, that includes us.
The result of their sin was that death and suffering entered the world,
we are born infected.
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.
God provided the ultimate remedy for sin through the cross of Christ.
Anyone who looks upon the cross of Christ with faith, anyone
who believes in Christ and follows him, as today’s Gospel proclaimed, shall not
perish because of the poison of sin, but will have eternal life.
Even though we are baptized, the effects of the poison still
often linger, and we need continued transformation and healing. All grace flows from the cross. This is why we kneel before the cross to pray
for all things. This is why we make the
sign of the cross before any prayer. Any
healing, any strength, any peace, comes from the cross. The cross is the fountain of all grace. [See
St. Clare altar]
St. Anthony of Padua in a sermon on the cross said: “You
cannot better appreciate your worth than by looking into the mirror of the
Cross of Christ; there you will learn how you are to deflate your pride, how
you must mortify the desires of the flesh, how you are to pray to your Father
for those who persecute you, and to commend your spirit into God’s hands.” The cross shows us how much God loves
us. When we gaze upon the cross of
Christ, we are humbled, that God is willing to become man and die for the
miserable sinner.
Saint Mary Magdalene who was present at the crucifixion is
said to have meditated on the cross every day for the rest of her life. And we are meant to do the same.
One way we do that is by making the sign of the cross often
throughout the day: before our meals, before we begin work, before we go to
bed, before we study, we should make the sign of the cross and ask God to bless
us.
Another way is by making sure your home has a crucifix on
the wall in a prominent place. This is
important in our increasingly secular culture.
Someone visiting your home might have no other exposure to Christian
symbols of faith. And it is good for all
family members, to have the cross in a prominent place is a reminder of that
love family members are to practice towards one another.
To unleash the transforming, healing powers of the cross, it
must be planted firmly in the soil of our hearts. We are not just to look upon the cross, but
to encounter the depths of God’s love for us by reflecting upon it. By meditating upon the cross, God will continue
to free us from all sin and selfishness, that we may become the people he made
us to be for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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