CROSS OF GLORY.

September 14, 2023.
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Readings: Nm 21:4b-9; Ps 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38; Phil2:6-11; Jn 3:13-17.

“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." Jn 3:14-15

A Filipino proverb says: “There’s no glory without sacrifice.” A Danish proverb adds: “Suffering and patience, obedience and application, help the lowly born to honor.”

The Cross of Christ is the highway, the bridge, and the key to our salvation. Venerating the Cross, we recall the great mystery of redemption, how God, through his only Begotten Son came to take our humanity and its sufferings and nailed them once and for all so that man may live forever free of sin and its damnation.

We are celebrating today the Feast of the Veneration of the Cross. The short introduction in the Missal says that "Public veneration of the Holy Cross dates to the fourth century when St. Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, discovered it in Jerusalem. This feast commemorates the rescue of the Holy Cross from the Persians in the seventh century. The Church sings of the triumph of the Holy Cross, the instrument of salvation.”

With the Cross of Christ, a singular and unequal victory is offered to humanity. It is the victory of the Kingdom of God over the kingdom of hell. The Catechism says: "The coming of God's kingdom means the defeat of Satan's: "If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." Jesus' exorcisms free some individuals from the domination of demons. They anticipate Jesus' great victory over "the ruler of this world" The kingdom of God will be definitively established through Christ's cross: "God reigned from the wood."" CCC 550

From the time Jesus carried, mounted, and died on the wood of the Calvary, the Cross has earned another meaning. It is no longer a death sentence or a capital punishment, but the key to heaven and the tree of glory. Thus, the entrance antiphon can invite: "We should glory in the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered."

In the history of humanity, there have always been great signs of salvation. Signs presenting instruments of damnation or death being turned into healing remedies. In our first reading, through the story of the children of Israel and the Saraph Serpent, we have such an experience. It is actually a symbol that anticipates the historical event of the Cross. The serpent raised on the pole to heal the sinful children of Israel foreshown Jesus who will be raised on the Cross as ransom for the sins of all. Just like the Saraph snake was raised in the desert as an antidote for those who were bitten by the poisonous snake, so too, will Jesus be raised on the Cross of the Calvary for our humanity under the prey and the poison of sin.

The Book of Wisdom even announces it when it says: "Affliction struck them briefly, by way of warning, and they had a saving token to remind them of the commandment of your Law, for whoever turned to it was saved, not by what he looked at, but by you, the Savior of all." (Wis 16:6-7) Moreover, the Lord Jesus, in his nocturnal dialog with Nicodemus, mentions: "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.” The Exaltation of Jesus on the Cross will aim to our salvation. The Cross becomes then the efficacious center and the definitive element for each one's salvation. Outside and separated from the Cross of Jesus, there is no salvation, just like without the serpent on the pillar there was no healing for the people in the desert. We are then urged to raise our eyes on the Cross and to contemplate it. For, it is the seal of God's love and the means of our future glorification.

St. Paul, speaking of the kenosis of the Lord shows us the way to real and genuine glory, humility. Because he emptied himself, Christ was anew filled and restored into his glory. As says the dictum, humility precedes glory. There cannot be an exaltation in one’s life, if one does not first accept humiliation. It is when one goes from the lower estate to the highest that we speak of glorification or exaltation. Those who do not learn humility and humiliation like that of Jesus Christ are not qualified for the glorification that comes from God.

This Paulinian hymn should always resound in our hearts and direct our lives: "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..." People filled with themselves, with arrogance, greed, and pride, and who disdain others because of their position or social status will not be exalted in God. We should open ourselves to a kind of kenosis. That is, empty ourselves of all pride. Assume the condition of the weak and the servants. Become similar to others in their suffering. Humiliate ourselves. Learn obedience... It is only at that cost will we be exalted. And in all this process, the Cross should stand as a key element and a mirror for us. No glory without the Cross, just as there was no Easter Sunday without the Good Friday and the Passion. The true place where Jesus was exalted was on the Cross. May we never forget it. So too, our sufferings are for our glory.