The Exaltation of the Cross — a feast that speaks to us about someone who was also larger in death than he was in life: Jesus of Nazareth. Indeed, there were those who thought Jesus was a renegade, a blasphemer, a trouble-maker; yet, the small pocket of those whom he healed, taught and touched has mushroomed over 2,000 years, claiming innumerable converts who have come to acknowledge this Jesus not only as an ethical model and a miracle-worker but as the anointed one, the Christ, the long-promised savior whose humanity sanctified ours and whose divinity made satisfaction or, better, atonement, for our sins!
Preparing for the second night of Passover, many Jews were busy getting to Temple for prayers, or market for this night’s food.Except for devoted women and angry members of the Sanhedrim, very few were watching Jesus as he struggled to carry the heavy beam to which he was tied, through the narrow, serpentine curves of the trail, now called the Via Dolorosa or “Way of Sorrow” that led to Golgotha, the mount of the damned, where criminals hung on crosses, in full view of Jerusalem. Nobody cared about one more condemned man — he was just one of countless souls sent packing to the place where he would no longer be a threat to society. How sad! How meaningless! Jesus’ persecutors had no clue who it was that carried the tree. They were in the dark about the true identity of this prisoner. Well, almost all of them….
Blessed are you, Virgin Mary, Mother of Sorrows, as you refused to abandon your only son, even as he was spat on, scourged, crowned with thorns and nailed to the cross. Blessed are you, Simon of Cyrene, who perhaps was recruited against your will but you helped Jesus, a stranger, and this favor will never be forgotten. Blessed are you, Veronica, for you had the courage to step forward and wipe the sweat and blood from the holy countenance of Jesus, the imprint of which remained on your veil, a first class relic of the Savior of the world. Blessed are you, holy women of Jerusalem, who wailed aloud out of compassion for a man who could easily have been one of your Hebrew sons. Blessed are you, John, beloved disciple of the Lord — --you were the only one of the Twelve who remained with your rabbi until the very end. And, at Jesus’ request, you cared for his bereaving mother when no one else would or could. Blessed are you, Joseph of Arimathea, for you gave the limp, lifeless body of Jesus, a proper burial in a tomb that you had purchased for yourself. Your selflessness emulates that of Jesus, whose the paschal mystery is tethered to the rugged Cross. Blessed are you, Mary of Magadala, Mary of Salome and Mary of Nazareth, the “Three holy Marys” who anointed the body of Jesus, not with disdain or repulsion but with myrrh, holy oils, tenderness and solicitude.
Just when it seemed that nobody cared that hot afternoon in Jerusalem, despite the indifference of most folks, something powerful was revealed to me on this Via Dolorosa: in Jesus, God cares! Yes, 2,000 years later, he still cares! “Ultimately, isn’t that what matters most? Isn’t that what saves us?”
We exalt or praise the cross — once a tool of public execution, because on it, hung the savior of the world. We hang the cross in places of honor because it represents the victory of the Lord over sin and death. We venerate the cross because the precious blood of Jesus which saturated its wood, atoned for our sins. We can never forget the glory of the cross because from it, the Church was born and the dream of eternal life after death became a reality and the redemption of the human race was born.
Father Comandiini is managing editor of “The Catholic Spirit.”