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“Exaltation of the Cross”:
Read - Num 21:4b-9; Phil 2:6-11; Jn 3: 13-17
The Church calls us today to celebrate the “Exaltation of the Cross”. Why this feast now, when we are not
in Lent or some other penitential time? It is a Feast which is linked calendar-wise with the dedication in 335 AD of the Basilica
of the Resurrection erected over what was considered the tomb of Christ outside Jerusalem. It is therefore one of the most ancient Liturgical celebrations of the Lord’s Cross. Being
the sign par excellence of our faith, it is fitting that we should recall it: it helps us to remember more frequently the
price of our salvation and to stir up our hearts in love for Jesus whose memento it is.
Of course, the Cross is exalted not because of itself but because of Him who hung upon it, and more especially because
of the reason He hung upon it. We do not adore the Cross, but Jesus Crucified; we are not idolaters, but believers in Jesus
Crucified. And why was Jesus crucified? The short and truest answer is: to save us from sin and death. But why would He do
that? And why did He have to be crucified for that to happen? It is good and necessary for us to reflect on these questions,
because the humdrum and dust of modern living can all but render us dull and insensitive, ungrateful and indifferent to the
great drama of life and death, of good and evil, of love and sin which is at the heart of each of our lives, whether we like
it or not. Our routine, our agendas, our more or less comfortable lifestyles, our mundane priorities, our presumptuous attitudes,
our preoccupation with our rights and freedoms, and many other things, can cause the most fundamental truths of our lives
to be side-lined if not repressed or forgotten altogether.
Let me begin to answer the questions mentioned by stating the obvious: man is a creature, not God. It seems too obvious
to state, yet how often our practical attitudes in life forget it! Man was created by God out of pure love and for pure love’s
sake. But love is only love if it is free; God gambled, He “had to”, when He created us free, for to be free was
not only the condition of being able to love Him in truth, it meant also the possibility of saying no to God’s love.
Under the jealous influence of Satan, man did in fact say no to God’s love; he failed to trust God’s word, to
obey His truth. This disobedience is the essence of original sin, whereby man freely catapulted himself out of God’s
friendship towards enmity, self-destruction and ultimately death - not just physical death, but spiritual death which we can
also call hell or damnation. But man’s self-condemnation, which God had to ratify in justice, did not mean that God’s options were exhausted. Since God had created us free, He needed to find a way of rescuing us from
sin and death that would still respect our freedom and yet manifest His immense desire to bring us back, to redeem us, to
save us unto Himself.
And just how did He do that? To show how great His love was for us, the Son of God was sent by the Father in the power
of the Spirit to become one of us, born of the Virgin Mary. God wished to save us “from the inside” as it were,
by becoming true man, not by a decree from on high canceling our sins and effectively ignoring our freedom and responsibility.
Hence the words of Jesus: “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.” Faith was the doorway which framed at one and the same time God’s
grace of salvation and man’s free response to it. The Son of God becomes incarnate, one of us, so that we might believe
in His enduring love. The incarnation is so incredibly bold and daring that those of other religions, and even many Christians,
perhaps some of us here today, cannot believe it: they find it scandalous, too good to be true. True God walked the earth
as true man? Come on! … Yet here is the source of real marriage, where the two (the divine and the human) become one
without losing their specific identity; here is the source of the sacraments, where the external and visible mediate to us
the internal and invisible reality of the divine.
But Jesus does not show off His divinity all at once, precisely because He wanted to respect our freedom and not overwhelm
us. Rather, He appeals to our minds with the proclamation of His truth, the Gospel, the Good News, the annunciation of God’s
salvation near at hand for those who will freely believe. He also appeals to our hearts and even to our bodies by performing
signs or miracles to excite our faith, to draw and attract us to Himself. He appeals to the deep sense of loss and confusion
within us by showing mercy, by forgiving sins. Yet He knows, as we all do, that the stubbornness of pride will mean that not
everyone will believe in Him; indeed, He will arouse the furious anger and rejection of the hardened sinner. And He knows
that this will mean slander, derision, jealousy and eventually violence and death. Still, He had to be faithful to the will
of the Father and to His own will to prove to us that, no matter what we would do, He would remain faithful, He would offer
the possibility of redemption to whoever would willingly receive it.
It is at this point that the Cross comes into view. Christ did not want the Cross for the Cross’s sake; He wanted
whatever it would take or cost to win over our hearts to faith, hope and love of
Him. In the historical period in which He was born and the place He chose to be born according to His own inscrutable plan,
that cost, that price would involve rejection by the religious establishment of His own people, the deliberate misconstruing
of His mission as being political and not religious (remember He died as “King of the Jews”), and the humiliation
and ignominy of torture and capital punishment at the hands of the Roman Gentiles. In this sense, the Cross had to become
God’s answer to our sin, for that was the price that the circumstances of time and place required.
In His providence, Jesus knew that this would be His fate, and so He took it and transformed it into the very instrument
of our salvation. For in being crucified, in surrendering Himself freely to death out of loving fidelity to the Father and
to us, He fulfilled all the prophecies of the Old Testament and brought the Jewish religion to consummation in the sacrifice
of the Cross: He became the innocent Lamb that was slain and whose blood saves us from the angel of death and damnation; He
became our new and eternal Paschal feast, giving us His body and blood as our food and drink for eternal life. His death opened
up for us the passage, the corridor from the hell of sin to the heaven of grace and love. Why? Because being without sin,
death could not hold Him; when death “bit” Jesus it was itself “bitten”, consumed, killed, destroyed.
Likewise, whoever believes in Him, by that very act of faith enters into the passage-way, the corridor formed by His death,
a passage-way that opens out, not into hell, but into heaven, into intimate reconciliation with the Blessed Trinity. If we
marvel at the thought of the passage God made for Israel through the Red Sea by blowing
the waters back, all the more must we marvel with unfailing gratitude at the passage Jesus makes for us through the waters
of sin and death by breathing His Spirit into the depths of our being. This indeed is the meaning of our baptism. Baptized,
we died with Him, we entered into that passage-way from hell to heaven and, in a sacramental way, we already rose and ascended
with Him to the Father.
And so the Cross, by God’s design, became no longer the symbol of curse and death, but of blessing and life in
Jesus our great and glorious Redeemer. For Jesus was sent, not to curse or condemn, but to bless and save the world. His Resurrection
in the flesh is the pledge of our own bodily Resurrection at the end of time, when God Himself will decide that indeed “it
is consummated”.
Without apology, then, we exalt the Cross of Jesus, we bless ourselves and our children with it; we venerate it and
kiss it; we keep it on our walls, around our necks, in our prayer books, in our cars. We must never let ourselves forget the
Cross, for on it hangs the hope of every sinner, however miserable, the comfort of every sick person, however pained, the
joy of every holy heart, however tried. The Cross must be exalted more than ever today in our homes, schools, universities,
workplaces and recreational facilities, because the Cross speaks of fidelity unto death, of the extremity of the love of God
that we need to sustain our own love in marriage, in the family, in the Church,
in society; the Cross speaks of persevering patience, unconditional forgiveness, unlimited compassion; the Cross calms our
worldly frustrations, calls the bluff on our ill-conceived and manifold forms of selfishness; the Cross irradiates hope when
despair seems inevitable; the Cross can break the hardest of hearts, overturn the most evil designs, bring tears of joy and
relief to the most reluctant convert. Before the Cross we all stand judged: what answer can we have for our sins when we look
upon the One we have pierced? The only answer comes from Him: “Father, forgive them, for they knew not what they did.”
Our only plea can be that of the good thief: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
Hold high the Cross! Exalt it, glory in it, for upon it hangs our life and salvation! Be careful not to let the serpent’s
subtle suggestions distract you from the Cross; do not let the Cross become unrecognizable by the dust you let accumulate
upon it. No matter how important you are, or think you are; no matter how busy you are, or think you are; no matter how intelligent
you are, or think you are: take a moment every day to venerate the scandal of the Crucifix and to thank the Crucified for
exposing Himself, for exposing God with such tenderness, vulnerability and humility to prove His love for you. In the hour
of temptation, think of the Cross, hold on to the Cross, exalt the Cross, and Satan will quickly withdraw. And in the hour
of suffering and final agony, let yourself gaze physically or mentally upon that Cross, for it will be the shape of your doorway
into Paradise.
Msgr. Peter Magee
Sunday, September 14th, 2003
Our Lady of the Presentation,
Poolesville: 5.30 pm vigil;
8.00 and 10.45 am
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