Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross-Homily for Thursday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time 14th September 2023

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross-Homily for Thursday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time 14th September 2023

Numbers 21:4b-9. Psalm 78:1-2,34-35,36-37,38. Philippians 2:6-11. John 3:13-17.

Today's feast celebrates the dedication of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This church is one of the most important shrines in the world since it is believed to have been erected on the spot where the Lord was crucified and was buried. Today, we celebrate the centrality of the cross in our Christian life and its saving power for us who believe.

Devotion to the Holy Cross dates back to the earliest days of Christianity. The feast itself has been celebrated since the fourth century. Today, the Catholic Church commemorates the recovery of the True Cross by Emperor Heraclius following his victory over the Persians.

The texts of the Mass and of the Liturgy of the Hours proclaim the Holy Cross as the instrument of our salvation. For inasmuch as our first parents sinned beneath the shadow of a tree, God has deigned to accomplish our redemption on the wood of the Cross.

Never forget the deeds of the Lord! is our Responsorial Psalm. In the first reading, the people of Israel forgot the many wonderful deeds of the Lord, and they spoke against God and Moses as a result of hunger and thirst. For this, God punished them and sent a fiery serpent among them, and they bit them so that many of them died.

They cried to Moses to intercede on their behalf for their offence, and he did. The Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it up as a sign; and everyone who is bitten, when he ses it, shall live" (Num.21:8) Moses did exactly as he was instructed and those bitten by the fiery serpent who look at it lived.

In today's Gospel, Jesus made reference to what Moses did in the first reading, saying, "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" (John 3:15).

The fiery serpent in the first reading was the symbolic figure of the Crucified Lord. Thus, when our Lord is lifted up on the Ctoss of Calcary, all who believe will have eternal life (cf.John 3:15).

There is a profound analogy between the figure of the serpent and the reality of the Son of man "lifted up," between the sign of salvation and the reality of salvation contained in the Cross of Christ. Salvation from physical death caused by the poison of the serpents in the desert came through a serpent. Salvation from spiritual death comes through the son of man "lifted up" on the Cross.

Being "lifted up" to the human eye is the culmination of humiliation and disgrace. But in the eyes of God, it is different. It was different in the eternal designs of God because it is victory over sin and death, leading to our salvation.

St. Paul, in the second reading, made reference to the victory that comes from the cross, saying, "And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil.2:8-11).

Today's feast is a reminder for us of the fact that we need to embrace our cross and carry it to gain heaven

 However, many run away from this reality and forget that faith is tested and strengthened in crisis. Spiritual growth never comes easily. We cannot rise to higher realms if we don't first realise that there is something to climb away from. Our Christian faith tells us that there is much bigger picture than what we could know or understand. Just as God turned the cross into something glorious, He has been working a plan to turn our sufferings into greater good.

We must bear in mind that a lot of people carry burdens they term as crosses when they are actually not crosses but rather, the consequences of their own actions. Some have crosses they have termed as punishment, and they beg God to take them away. A true cross is that which God gives for the growth of self and others. A true cross would then be the struggles of life we ought to bear for the sake of the kingdom as a result of being a child of God. Let us embrace the cross because it is the road to salvation. Let us remember the words of Christ, "If anyone wants to be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me" (Matt.16:24).

May the "lifted up" of Christ on the Cross turn our sorrows into joy, our stumbling blocks into stepping stones, our obstacles into opportunity leading to our eternal salvation through Christ our Lord. Amen.