Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
First Reading: (Philippians 2:6–11)
Responsorial Psalm: (Psalm 78)
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, Alleluia.
We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You, because by Your Cross You have redeemed the world.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Gospel: (John 3:13–17)
Reflection:
On this Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, we jump right away into the mystery. In our Gospel reading, we have Nicodemus the Pharisee.
Nicodemus was indeed a Pharisee, but he was not really allowed to come out in public and say, “I believe in Jesus, that Jesus is a prophet and that He is the Son of God.” So, he comes at night, and Jesus really explains to him that He has come not to condemn the world, that He is the Son of God.
It is a mystery, of course.
Nicodemus is also there with the crucifixion later on. But in the first reading from Philippians, we have St. Paul explaining to the Philippians the mystery of the Cross.
The mystery is that Jesus had to suffer. He had to suffer and empty Himself. He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.
And that is a great mystery.
Jesus did not go around saying, “Here! I am God, and I am special, and you've got to do this.”
No.
He emptied Himself right to the point of giving His own life to us.
That is the mystery: that He died for us, for our sins, and that He gave us new life and showed us the way to God through the Resurrection, of course.
But there is a whole history there.
In the early Church, the Cross was something very horrifying, and it still is horrifying. It was so horrifying that in the early Church, you did not see the Cross very much. You saw Jesus as the Good Shepherd mainly, and so on.
But the Cross slowly came in there.
The Exaltation of the Cross historically goes back to the feast that commemorates the consecration of two basilicas in Jerusalem: one over the site believed to be the crucifixion site and the other one over the tomb, the burial site of Jesus.
And so this happened in 335, about 200 or 300 years after Christ.
Starting in 313 with the Edict of Milan, the Christian faith became slowly the faith of the Empire, and Emperor Constantine the Great legalized it in the whole Empire some years later.
Tradition has it that his mother, Saint Helena, found the actual Cross of Christ. It's tradition; we don't know if this is true, but that's the tradition.
And St. Macarius, the Bishop of Jerusalem at that time, oversaw, under her direction, the building of the two basilicas.
And it is very important: the triumph of the Cross.
Jesus, who died for us.
It is a mystery, but it is so important for us to pray with.
But without the crucifixion and the Resurrection, our faith is really just a nice teaching about living a good life.
But with the crucifixion and Resurrection, it is much more.
We know Jesus showed a way forward and showed us the way to God.
There is life after death.
And it is so important for us to know and not to be ashamed to be Christians, and to accept our crosses.
Each one of us has a cross.
And it is so important to accept our crosses.
Each one of us will suffer.
And so many people, of course, suffer here on Earth.
It is, of course, something that some people will say is not true, but we have, especially in the body of saints, so many examples of mystical experiences of how God, Jesus, is real.
How Jesus has suffered and died for us.
To show us the way.
To show us that this is real.
To show us that there is life after death.
And it invites us to suffer with Jesus.
To suffer with Jesus on the Cross, and especially when life is not good.
Amen.
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