The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

In all four Gospels the account of Jesus’ passion and death is rather brief; there are few details because it was not written for the sake of curiosity. Rather it is the proclamation of the Good News to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ; theGospel accounts tell us all we need to know.

In the Gospel of St. John there is no mention of Simon of Cyrene as there is in Matthew, Mark and Luke. John states: “Jesus was led away and carrying the cross by Himself went out to what is called the Place of the Skull (in Hebrew Golgotha). In His bearing the cross it became much more than a piece of wood, an instrument for execution; through the One sentenced to death and shortly to be nailed to its wood, I believe, it absorbed something of the Lord Jesus. Just as the Father left something of Himself in creation - His majesty seen in a mountain, His beauty in a sunset, His power in a storm, His life in us - so the Lord Jesus, in His redeeming love, left something of His sacred humanity in that cross - His sweat, His blood, His tears and His anguish.

But exceedingly more than that He left something of His divinity in the wood - His concern for His mother and John, His promise of paradise to the thief, His compassion for the crowd ‘Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing!’, His passionate embrace of the Father’s will and finally, His total trust ‘Father, into Your hands, I commend My spirit’. By all this and more the cross was transformed - this inanimate piece of wood was changed from an instrument of horror and dread into the tree of life, into an ever flowing fountain of mercy, an eternal source of hope, a word, a great word, of forgiveness of love beyond all measure. Jesus’ words to Nicodemus about Himself prophesied all this: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son...”

Everyday and especially today we praise God for this gift and as people signed with the cross we desire to receive the redeeming love of the Lord Jesus and in receiving this extravagant grace to live it with faith and gratitude.

I end this with a brief prayer that I remember being recited at each Station of the Cross: We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You because by Your holy cross You
have redeemed the world.