Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Lectionary: 638
Reading 1
With their patience worn out by the
journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!"
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
"We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us."
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
"Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live."
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.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38
R. (see 7b) Do not
forget the works of the Lord!
Hearken, my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable,
I will utter mysteries from of old.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
While he slew them they sought him
and inquired after God again,
Remembering that God was their rock
and the Most High God, their redeemer.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
But they flattered him with their mouths
and lied to him with their tongues,
Though their hearts were not steadfast toward him,
nor were they faithful to his covenant.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
But he, being merciful, forgave their sin
and destroyed them not;
Often he turned back his anger
and let none of his wrath be roused.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
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.
Because of this, 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.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you,
because by your Cross you have redeemed the
world.
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
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.
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
The Tree of Life centered in the Garden of Eaden is seen by us as the Cross of Christ. We were created by God and it is God who continues to give us life, regardless of the impact of Original Sin upon His creation and on us. Our turning away from God and perchance to sin through the exercising of our free will, has already been remedied through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. The Cross stands as a constant reminder that God, in His infinite wisdom, has already offered us the hope and solution to our disordered ways which have made that which was created perfect imperfect. Throughout all eternity, Jesus Christ has always been the answer to everything that was defective through our own faults, the original one being our wantonness to be gods ourselves, exercising that which was given to us as a precious gift to the evilest of ends: our will.
God has always wanted one thing from us: To love. God so loves us that,
“He gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.”
We are further reminded of this through the Gospel reading today. Jesus removes all doubt of why He was sent into this world. There was to be no condemnation, but an opportunity for salvation. The Word becoming flesh marks a full revelation of the Divine Plan and Beatific Vision; a culmination of all things throughout eternity itself. Jesus Christ has always been central to that plan and central to our destiny, be it with Him or without Him. He is the one thing that is constant in an ever-changing world.
The healing power of Jesus Christ in our lives is offered to us without limitation. It only takes a turning to Him and acceptance of Him into our hearts. Jesus stipulates this in His proclamation today. There is a prerequisite belief that needs to come from us, which can then clear the way for Jesus to enter our lives. Through this faith, there will naturally come a surrendering of our will in favor of the will of God. Just as Jesus became obedient to death on a cross, we are encouraged to become obedient to God, living the life of Jesus Christ. When we become obedient and live out our faith through our thoughts and actions, our lives will then become aligned with God and we will cease from resisting that which we know is true: God knows best and doing His will is far better than trying to fulfill those things that our will would prefer to do.
Today being the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Cross, we are reminded that the Cross of Christ needs to be lifted high in our lives. Its importance to us should mirror the importance it has to all of creation. Where it was in the Garden of Eden should be where it is in our hearts. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
“We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and utter foolishness to the Gentiles,”
so too must we proclaim it in our lives as Christians. We must also follow the example of actions, surrendering to Him and adhering to His words. Walking with the Crucified Christ, means that we are also carrying our own crosses, bearing the weight of all things that overwhelm us. Our sins are included, all of which will be removed by Him when His journey is completed. So was He crucified, so are our sins and mortality crucified. So as He was resurrected, we become Children of the Resurrection with our sins washed away in His blood. We are then new creations and are afforded all benefits that come with our birthright, being God’s Children.
The joy and happiness of the Resurrection cannot be experienced without the agony and pain of the Cross. Jesus proclaimed that He was the gate that leads to the Father. It is through Him that all need to journey to encounter the Father and enter into relationship with Him. A relationship with Jesus comes first, urged on and solidified through the presence of the Holy Spirit, which then ultimately leads to the Father. The Cross is the key to all of these occurrences and is the key that unloads the way to salvation for us, all of mankind, and all of God’s creation.
Deacon Tom
FURTHER REFLECTION ON THE EXULTATION OF THE CROSS
(My Catholic Life.com)
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, also known as the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, commemorates three historical events: the discovery of the True Cross in 326, its initial exaltation for public veneration in 335, and the recovery of the Cross from the Persians in 628. Nowadays, this feast also celebrates the boundless impact of Christ’s Cross upon all of creation.
The Edict of Milan, issued in 313, granted religious freedom across the Roman Empire. This was a mutual agreement between Roman Emperors Constantine I in the West and Licinius in the East. Before this edict, Christians had endured various state-sponsored persecutions over the prior two and a half centuries.
After the Edict was signed, from 314 to 324, Constantine and Licinius were in continual conflict. The tension escalated when Constantine accused Licinius of plotting against him. In 324, Constantine defeated Licinius in battle and subsequently executed him on charges of conspiracy. This made Constantine the sole ruler of the Roman Empire, including Jerusalem, which had previously been under Licinius’s control.
In 326, Constantine’s mother, Saint Helena, a devout Christian, embarked on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Her mission was to identify significant sites from Christ’s life and establish churches at those locations. In Jerusalem, she aimed to find the True Cross and to build a church over the sites of Mount Calvary and Jesus’ tomb, known as the Holy Sepulchre. Upon identifying Mount Calvary and the empty tomb, she discovered three discarded and buried crosses. After an investigation, the local bishop confirmed they were the crosses used to crucify Jesus and the two thieves. Since Helena did not know which cross was Christ’s, she arranged for a sick woman to touch all three. The woman was immediately healed upon touching one of them, indicating that it was the True Cross.
Following the discovery of the True Cross, Mount Calvary, and Christ’s tomb, Emperor Constantine ordered the construction of a church to encompass these sites and house the True Cross. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was erected and dedicated on September 13, 335. As the legend goes, the following day, Christ’s Cross was brought outside the newly built church for the faithful to venerate. Thus, the first showing, or Exaltation of the Holy Cross, might have occurred on September 14, 335. Over the next three centuries, because liturgical celebrations were not widely centralized, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was likely celebrated annually in Jerusalem and varied in other ecclesiastical jurisdictions.
In 614, the Persians invaded Jerusalem and took the True Cross as a trophy. The Persians, primarily followers of the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism, were not Christians. Allowing the Holy Cross to remain in their possession was seen as sacrilegious. Eight years later, in 622, Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius initiated military campaigns to recapture Jerusalem and the True Cross. Finally, in 628, he triumphed, and the following year, Emperor Heraclius entered Jerusalem with the True Cross, restoring it to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. After that, the Feast of the Holy Cross became a universal celebration within the Church, starting in Rome and subsequently spreading throughout the entire empire, and has been celebrated annually on September 14 ever since.
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