Celebrating the Triumph of the Cross

On Wednesday, September 14, we celebrate The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The Cross, the symbol of death, has become for us a symbol of the hope and promise of eternal life, through Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection.
 
Jesus, as God, knew everything that was going to happen to him. Yet, that knowledge did not lessen his very human physical pain, nor did it help to alleviate his feelings of loneliness and abandonment. (His trusted disciples had long since deserted Him when the going got rough.) How frail Jesus was in his human nature! Yet, obedient to the Father’s Will, he persevered in carrying his Cross. In faith and trust and love, Jesus endured unto death, despite his human weakness and failing strength.
 
Yet, what appeared to be a losing situation was turned into Christ’s glorious victory over sin and death. Because of his Resurrection, we, too, shall live forever. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:16).
 
When we look at a crucifix, let us remember that the vertical beam symbolizes the union of heaven and earth, of our heavenly Father with us. The horizontal beam is a sign of our union with Christ Jesus: “…all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). It is through Jesus’ Passion and Death on the Cross that salvation comes to us. Salvation cannot be earned; it is a gift God freely offers through Jesus Christ, his son. We are free to accept or refuse this gift.
 
The crucifix, then, is a central sign of our faith. But faith alone cannot save Andrea di Bartolo. Way to Calvary. c. 1400, Thissen-Bornhemisza coll. Madridus if we deny that faith by the way we live. “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Therefore, the life of faith is also a life of good works, which is the fruit of a genuine faith. And a genuine faith leads to the foot of the Cross.
 
In this life, we all have our crosses to bear – physical aches and pains, feelings of loneliness and despair, homelessness or joblessness – but whatever individual Cross we are called to carry can become the key to our salvation. Pope Francis, in “The Joy of the Gospel,” writes, “While painfully aware of our own frailties, we have to march on without giving in, keeping in mind what the Lord said to Saint Paul: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2Cor 12:9). Christian triumph is always a cross, yet a Cross which is at the same time a victorious banner borne with aggressive tenderness against the assaults of evil.”

When we willingly follow Christ’s Way of the Cross, pledging to live a life of love with God and our fellow humans, we are on the road to salvation: Our Crosses can become opportunities for victory.
 
May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts! As well as celebrating the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross commemorates two historical events. The first is the discovery in 320 AD of the True Cross, of Calvary and of the tomb of Christ by St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, which the Romans had buried under a Temple to Venus. The second is the dedication of a church on the site in 335 AD. Today this church, in continuous existence since then, is known as the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, and houses Calvary, the Tomb of Jesus and the cistern in which St. Helena found the instruments of the Passion, including the Cross. From EWTN.com