Exultation of the Holy Cross

Exultation of the Holy Cross

The Feast of the "Exultation of the Holy Cross" falls on September 14th.  This feast actually is a very ancient one, for it was observed in Rome back as far as the seventh century.  In essence, these feast commemorates the recovery of the Holy Cross.  The Cross, which had fallen into the possession of the King of the Persians, Chosroas, was recovered and then returned to Jerusalem in the year 629.

If we take ourselves back in time.  Back even further than the seventh century.  If we take ourselves back in time  . . . .  all the way back to the time of Our Lord .   . . . .  if, at least in our minds eye, we can imagine what it would be like to be one of the disciples of Our Blessed Saviour.  We imagine ourselves traveling with Him; eating with Him.  We can imagine our watching Him interacting with the people;  seeing Him speak to great multitudes but also speaking to small crowds.  We can imagine watching Him teach and preach and heal and laugh and cry.  We imagine seeing Him telling people about the Kingdom of God and imploring people to turn from their sins and turn back to God.  We imagine this Man that we have grown to love and admire, He surely must be the greatest teacher ever.  Surely, He must be sent from God, we tell ourselves.  We hear the words which He speaks.  We see the miracles He performs.  We are in awe of this Man of God.

Keep imagining, though, when this same Man  . . . . our wonderful Rabbi . . . . our learned Teacher . . . our Friend . . . . Our Lord . . .  imagine our horror when He was taken into custody by the authorities.  Imagine how you would feel if you then saw Him taken away in bonds and made to carry a cross.  Imagine how grief-stricken you would feel if you saw your Blessed Saviour hanging on that same Cross on the hill at Calvary . . . .hanging between two petty criminals.   Needless to say, I am sure that there was much confusion on that hill at Calvary that dreadful day.  I am sure that emotions from every corner would come crashing together all at once:  sadness . . .  fear . . . . anger .. . . torment . . .  confusion.   I am quite sure that the sight of that Wonderful Rabbi . . .  that Man of God . . . . our Teacher . . .  our Friend . . . . the image of Him hanging there on that Cross was most certainly seen as defeat by almost everyone present that day.  Who can blame them?  The same Blessed Saviour Who had come into Jerusalem amid cries of exultation . . . cries of Hosanna!   . . . . Who was acclaimed by all as He entered the city.  The tables had now turned, you tell yourself, and Our Blessed Saviour had been utterly defeated.  Or so our eyes tell us.

It is hard for us to imagine what it was like for those who were there during those dramatic days just described above.  After all, we know the "end of the story," don't we?  We know how this drama plays out in the end.  But it is interesting to try and imagine how it was for those who were present that first Good Friday.  Personally, I imagine that there were many people present who thought that it was the end for this dynamic, young Rabbi from Nazareth.  Surely, this was the end for Him, they thought.  Little did they know that this was only the beginning.

Our Blessed Saviour used that Cross to be a vehicle for our salvation.  What rightly would have been a dreadful, painful death turned out to be a victory.  To the human eye, it seemed like a defeat ..  ..  a horrible defeat.  To the eyes of faith, it was something marvelous to behold:  Our Blessed Lord taking the sins of every single person and carrying them upon His blessed shoulders.  He achieved something you and I could never dream of accomplishing.  We could never hope to atone for our own sins, let alone the sins of humanity.  And yet Our Blessed Saviour never fails to surprise us.  Our Blessed Saviour is always ready to turn the ordinary into something extraordinary.   He used ordinary pieces of wood, fashioned into a place of execution for anyone else, and turned that "place of execution" into a "place of redeeming."  He performed on that hill at Calvary something truly extraordinary:  He redeemed the world by dying for us.  He became the true "Lamb of God" Who was sacrificed for our sins.  While Our Blessed Saviour amazed people who witnessed the miracles He performed.  He amazed people even in His death . . . . His death on the Cross.  He turned the ordinary into the extraordinary.  He turned defeat into triumph.  He experienced death so that you and I could ultimately experience life.

So often, you and I are willing to stop ourselves at the first sign of defeat.  So often in our struggles of daily living, we get frustrated . . . we get tired . ..  we get angry.  We try and try and try and things don't seem to go our way.  And so we just give up.  We stop trying.  It's not worth the effort, we tell ourselves.  Why should we continue?  This is crazy.   In a certain sense, as I say often during my sermons, we are our own worst enemies.  We limit ourselves by convincing ourselves that it won't be possible . . .  it can't be done . . . we shouldn't continue.  We convince ourselves that we just aren't worthy.  We tell ourselves that we will never be able to do it.  And to top it all off, we feel sorry for ourselves.  We turn our sorrows into a sort of a "pity party" and use that as an excuse not to continue.

"And he that taketh not his Cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of Me."  (St. Matthew 10:38)

And elsewhere in St. Luke's Gospel, we read:

"And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be my disciple." (St. Luke 14:27)

All of us have burdens to bear.  All of us have struggles in life.  Whether they be personal addictions what we struggle with on a daily basis.  Or the addictions of a son, a daughter,  a loved one.  Whether they be burdens of health, financial burdens, burdens of loneliness after the death of a spouse.  All of us can name our "cross" that we must bear.  But Our Blessed Lord never leaves us alone.  One of the beautiful things about Our Saviour is that He not only teaches by His words, He leads by His example.  Our Blessed Lord is telling us also to " . . .  come, take up the cross, and follow Me."  (St. Mark 10:21)

When all seemed lost on that hill at Calvary.  When death seemed to triumph in the end.  Ultimately, death was defeated.   When you seem defeated, when you seem as though you can not continue any further.  Place your trust in God.  Ask Him to turn your "defeat" into victory.

On the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, we should use this feast as a reminder:

1)  Remember that Our Blessed Lord turned defeat into victory.  With God, all things are possible.  Let us always remember that God can turn our defeat into victory.  God can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

2) Remember that Christ died on the Cross to atone for OUR sins . . . . not His . . . . . but for OUR sins.  He used an instrument of death to bring life to us.  Let us always look upon the Cross and remember that Christ died for our sins and forgave us from the Cross:  "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."