Friday, September 14, the Church celebrated the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Why the Cross should be exalted?

A quick glance at the Old Testament immediately calls our attention to the fact that for the People of the Old Covenant the cross was considered nothing other than a curse. The book of Deuteronomy openly displays such a teaching when it says: “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God; you shall not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance” (Deut 21:22-23).

A crucified person was deemed as a criminal. Consequently the proclamation of the Messiah, the Anointed One, as crucified, was understandably met by furious opposition, namely from the Jewish audience. The First letter to the Corinthians pictures this Jewish resentment to the Cross in the following words: “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Cor 1:23-25).

Contrarily to the Jewish disdain of the Cross the Christian tradition highly exalts the latter to the extent that it sees in it its very founder. The Cross and Christ are the one and the same thing! In fact to the unbelieving crowd the Johannine Jesus keeps saying: “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me” (John 8:28). For Jesus the Cross meant the hour of his glorification as the Messiah, the Anointed One, the much-awaited Saviour. The Cross is the visible manifestation, or rather the fulfillment, of Jesus’ own prophecy to Nicodemus and to all those who, like him, are still searching for the saving truth: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:14-17).

The Cross means salvation because it is the throne of the one and unique Saviour and Mediator between God and humanity, Jesus Christ.

Seen from this perspective the Cross becomes also the powerful means for our purification. After mentioning the destructive works of the flesh the letter to the Galatians goes on to affirm plainly: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). The same thought is reiterated in Saint Edith Stein’s book “Science of the Cross” when she writes: “The more lofty the degree of loving union to which God destines the soul, so much more profound and persistent must be its purification”.

The Cross must be exalted because by embracing it one is embracing Jesus’ way of thinking and behaving. As Saint Paul says: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

Do I believe that by daily making the sign of the Cross I am opening myself to Jesus Christ?

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap