The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

 

 

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14)

Readings: Numbers 21:4-9     Philippians 2:6-11       John 3:13-17

            On September 14 the Church celebrates the ancient feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the instrument of our salvation in Christ.  As we recall the gift of God’s saving love for the world manifested in lifting Jesus up on the cross and raising him to new life, let us sing the refrain of the responsorial psalm, “Do not forget the works of the Lord!” (Psalm 78).
            The Old Testament reading from Numbers 21 about Moses’ making and raising up a healing bronze saraph/serpent in the wilderness anticipates Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus in the Gospel.  As happens repeatedly in their journey from Sinai to the land of Canaan, the Israelites murmur against God and Moses over their lack of food and water and reject the Lord’s saving action in the Exodus: “Why have your brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water?  We are disgusted with this wretched food (the manna!)!”  The Lord’s response is to first punish the rebellion but with the purpose of causing the Israelites to repent so that he may save them. First, the Lord sends fiery serpents among the people which bite many, causing them to die.  The punishment has the saving effect of making the people repent of their sin; they say to Moses, “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you.  Pray the Lord to take the serpents from us.”  Moses then intercedes for the people and receives instructions from the Lord for delivering the people from the serpents’ bites. Following the Lord’s instructions, he makes a bronze serpent, mounts it on a pole and those who have been bitten may look upon it and live. The theme that God’s will is to bring life is central to all three readings.
            The second reading from Philippians is Paul’s magnificent hymn to Christ who triumphed over sin and death through his self-emptying love, manifested in his death on the cross.  In the context of exhorting the Philippians to give up selfish and petty jealousy, Paul uses this early Christian hymn as the foundation for the Christian life of selfless love. The pattern, established in Jesus, of death to self and resurrection through God’s power is to mark the life of the Christian community.  Christ, in contrast to his anti-type Adam, did not grasp at being godlike, but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and becoming fully human, even to the point of humbling himself by obediently accepting the degradation of death on a cross.  God responded to this act of self-emptying love by exalting Jesus and bestowing on him lordship over the cosmos, so that at the mention of Jesus’ name all beings in the universe might acknowledge him as Lord and Messiah.  The cross, originally a sign of degradation and infamy, is paradoxically transformed into a triumphant symbol of God’s saving love for the world.
            The Gospel reading from Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus in John provides us with a symbolic foreshadowing of Jesus’ cross and resurrection.  For John, Jesus’ crucifixion is the beginning of his life-giving exaltation and return to the Father.  In the context of challenging Nicodemus to be born anew by believing in him as the Son of Man who has come down from heaven and will return to the Father, Jesus compares his being “lifted up” and giving eternal life to all who believe in him to Moses’ lifting up bronze serpent to give life to the sinful Israelites in the desert.
            The conclusion of the reading is John’s profound reflection on God’s motive for sending his Son into the world.
                        God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
                        So that he who believes in him might not perish
                        but might have eternal life.  For God did not send his
                        Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
                        the world might be saved through him.
God has acted out of love for the world and desires to share his eternal life of love with it.  The light of God’s revelation in the darkened world of sin is the Son’s act of love in laying down his life “for his friends” (see John 15:11-17).  They in turn are called to love one another as Jesus has loved them (John 13:12-17).  God does not actively condemn the world in John’s Gospel.  Condemnation and judgment come when the world rejects the light of God’s love in Jesus and prefers the darkness of wickedness.  Evil hates the light of God’s love and retreats into selfishness and darkness.  As we reflect on the paradoxical mystery of the cross, let us allow the love of God manifest in Jesus draw us into the truth of God’s life.