Glory Through the Cross

Homily for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

The triumph of the cross is something we celebrate every day at Mass and more intensely during Lent and Easter. This feast was instituted to recall three historical events: the finding of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the dedication of churches built by Constantine on the site of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Calvary, and the restoration of the True Cross to Jerusalem by the emperor Heraclius II. Originally, these three events were celebrated on separate days in the liturgical calendar. However, Pope John XXIII combined the three feasts into one.

The early Christian church was reluctant or hesitant to use the cross as a symbol; the shame of such a death was so strong in their culture that to glory in it, to emphasize that the triumph came through that suffering and ignominy, was almost unthinkable. The first crosses were simple crosses which may have been studded with gems to emphasize the triumph and the glory accomplished through the cross. With time Christians learned to rejoice in the victory that was won on the cross by Christ humbling himself to undergo such an ignominious death.

In St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, he celebrates the humility of Jesus in emptying himself of his divinity and accepting human form, including the reality of death. The emphasis on this action of Christ, this way of humility and nonviolence, provided a way to celebrate the genuine victory over against the prevalent worldly notion that might makes right, that war will improve things.

In daily life, in family and community relations and in relations with fellow workers, we have constant opportunities to realize that winning over someone else is not, in following Christ, the way to a genuinely happy and respectful solution. Not only in the humbling way of suffering, sickness perhaps, or disappointment, even death, but also in the many more ordinary moments and tasks of everyday life do we come to true resurrection.

By sharing in Christ’s body and blood in this banquet at the altar, we are given the strength to share daily in this cross and through that, in his triumph.