Dear friends, Here is my homily for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. I am on way way to Canada tomorrow. In 2004 a very controversial film was produced and directed by Mel Gibson, ‘The Passion of the Christ’. Perhaps many of you saw it. Some of the criticism of the movie was the intensity of the scenes that depicted the suffering and death of Jesus. Although we are use to seeing these events in the Stations of the Cross, and on the crucifixes we may have in our home, it was quite dramatic. Even when you look at the Stations of the Cross it does not depict the extreme that the movie showed – the sweat and matted hair of Jesus, the dirt he picked up from the way, the crushing weight of the cross, and in particular the amount of blood spilled for our salvation. It was indeed dramatic, but the more and more I thought about it the more and more I realized that it was. Many of these scenes may have surprised us, and caused a lot of reflection, just as it did controversy and criticism. The title of the Feast we celebrate today is ‘The Triumph of the Cross’. Recollections of the movie, ‘The Passion of the Christ’, don’t actually say much to us about ‘triumph’ in relation to the cross. Rather the first reaction of many to the cross of Jesus is that it is a sign of failure – a life cut short, a mission not completed, a humiliating death. But we know how the story ends, that Good Friday leads us to Easter Sunday – that the cross is not the end, but becomes a sign of triumph and victory when Jesus rose from the dead. It is no longer blood stained, but becomes the throne of Christ the King, the Redeemer and Saviour. But why the cross? In the Old Testament God made a covenant with the Jewish nation – a holy pact of faith and love that is forever and one hundred percent. It was sealed with the blood of the lamb which God provided to Abraham, so that he did not have to sacrifice his son Isaac. The new covenant, in which we share through our baptism, comes about also through a sacrifice of blood. Jesus becomes the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. His sacrifice on the cross is the definitive sign for us of God’s love and the holy pact that exists between us and God, through Jesus. And so when we see the cross, or wear it, or make the sign of the cross, or venerated it on Good Friday, it should be a sign of our salvation in Jesus, and that indeed it is a sign of the triumph of Jesus over sin and death. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead converts and transforms the cross into a sign of life, not death; victory, not defeat; glory, not tragedy. I have always appreciated the image that we find in the First Reading from Numbers (21:4-9), that we hear echoed in the gospel (John 3:13-17). Just as the serpent of bronze – like the physicians serpent that represents healing – was lifted up, and all who saw it were saved, so too, as we see Jesus lifted on the cross we see this sign of our salvation. St. Paul speaks so eloquently in the reading from Philippians (2:6-11), that this sign of humility, obedience and sacrifice became the very instrument through which the Father exalted Jesus. This giving of himself was not only made manifest on the cross, but in his embracing of our humanity. He has become one with us – in all things but sin – to raise us up with him. Yet, somehow, I believe that in order for us to be raised up it involves more than just proclaiming our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. It calls us to life in union with Christ, to be humble and recognize that all that we have and are comes from God to be obedient to the Father’s will in OUR life and to sacrifice ourselves through our love and service of God and one another. I don’t believe that we can share in the triumph of the cross of Christ by seeing ourselves as spectators in relation to the cross, but rather as people who embrace the cross and live lives of humility, obedience and sacrifice. These three words aren’t exactly high on the list of priorities of ‘the world’. Just the opposite, they are seen as negative – a denial of oneself and taking care of others. Yet, Jesus shows us, and we celebrate today, that this triumph and glory of the resurrection could only take place through that act of faith of Jesus. As we celebrate this Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, let us take some time today to reflect on how we see the cross, how we relate to the cross – whether we run from it or embrace it.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 01:44:28 +0000
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