THE EXALTATION OF THE CROSS

Today, the Church offers us the opportunity to contemplate the center of our spirituality: meditation on the Passion of Jesus, meditation on the cross of our Savior. The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrates first of all the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, in 326, and the dedication in 335 of the basilica and shrine built on Calvary by Constantine.

According to St John Chrysostom, St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, longed to find the cross of Christ. For this reason she travelled to Jerusalem where she organized a dig at the hill of Calvary. The diggers uncovered three wooden crosses. They could not tell which was the cross of Jesus and which were the crosses of the two thieves crucified with him. Finally they brought a sick woman and a dead man who was being carried to burial. The three crosses were placed one after the other on the sick woman and on the dead man. Two of the crosses had no effect, but on contact with the third cross, the sick woman was healed of her infirmity and the dead man came to life. These miracles clearly indicated which of the three was the holy cross.

News of the finding of the true cross quickly spread and believers gathered to see the true cross and to venerate it. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Makarios, standing on a raised platform, lifted high the cross, "exalting" it, for all to see. The people fell to their knees, bowing down before the cross and crying out repeatedly: "Lord, have mercy!" St Helena then commissioned a church to be built over the site. The church of the Holy Sepulcher was consecrated on September 13, 335. The feast of the finding and exaltation of the Cross was appointed to be celebrated annually on the following day.

Secondly, this feast of the exaltation of the cross, more than anything else, is a celebration and commemoration of God's greatest work: his salvific death on the Cross and His Resurrection, through which death was defeated and the doors to Heaven opened. In the ancient Greco-Roman world, the Christian claim of the cross was a complete foolishness. But Christians believe that God—all-powerful, all knowing, ever living—assumed a human body and soul, not to find pleasure but to enter into our pain so that we may have life. This is the mystery and the glory of the Holy Cross.

Today the sign of the cross has become a universal Christian symbol. When people cross themselves we recognize them immediately as Christians Catholics. Ornamental crosses are fashionable today in the form of necklaces, broaches, earrings, and the like. A crucifix identifies a church as a Christian church. Likewise, crucifixes are everywhere in the homes, the schools and the hospitals. These are all useful and important ways of proclaiming and lifting high the cross of Christ. We understand that the cross is not just a piece of wood. It is a symbolic summary of the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ by which we have been redeemed. It is a symbol of our faith in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. With the eyes of faith we do not see in the Cross only an instrument of torture, but an instrument of relief, through which salvation becomes real for all.

            Jesus taught us that the cross should be a constant feature in the daily lives of his followers: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me". To take up the cross in this way we need to do more than wear a crucifix or place it in our surroundings. To lift up the cross the way Jesus asks us to do is a way of life. It is to accept self-denial and sacrifice as part of our daily lives. Sacrifice means to give up something that is of value to me for the sake of God and the benefit of my neighbor. Another word for it is love. Love is measured by sacrifice. People who love much sacrifice much. Yet sacrifice does not make us poorer but richer. This is what we see in Christ. This is what we see in the lives of the saints. This is what we are all called to be. Let us all today resolve to "Lift high the cross, the love of Christ till the entire world adores his sacred name."