By Father Rich Tomkosky
The last time the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was on a Sunday was back in 2014. This year, it was again fell on a Sunday — this past Sunday, September 14. It’s good that occasionally we have these beautiful Liturgical feasts on Sunday, so all Catholics can learn more about them – not just the ones who come to daily Mass — although as always, I encourage all of you to come to daily Mass as much as possible.
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrates the public veneration of the Holy Cross of Jesus which dates to the fourth century when Saint Helen, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, discovered it in Jerusalem. They saw it was the true Cross by the miracles that occurred when sick people touched it. This feast commemorates also the rescue of the Holy Cross from the Persians in the seventh century.
In this Liturgical feast, the Church sings of the triumph of the Holy Cross, the instrument of salvation for humanity and its meaning for us in daily life: the Cross leads to the Resurrection — if embraced in love. And we all have a unique cross to bear/embrace with the Lord, and to ask Our Lady of Sorrows and our guardian angel to help us do that well.
The first reading this past weekend from the book of Numbers must be seen in accord with the responsorial psalm response, “Do not forget the works of the Lord!” The issue in the first reading is that the Israelites have forgotten the works of the Lord, and that is why God punishes them by sending the saraph serpents to bite them as a chastisement to try to wake them up spiritually. Their complaining about being sick of the manna and that they were going to die in the desert was the final straw for God, since He had both miraculously freed them from the grasp of the Egyptians through the miracle of crossing the Red Sea and then took care of them by giving them the manna, so they didn’t starve, on the journey to the Promised Land.
For the Israelites to then complain about the lack of variety of food and by saying that God was going to let them die there showed an amazing spirit of ingratitude and unbelief on their part. They were like spoiled selfish children who need to be justly punished to hopefully learn a sense of gratitude instead of entitlement. But even then, soon after, God was kind to them in their spiritual immaturity and lack of real faith, for after many of them were bit by the serpents and died, it dawned on those who were still alive that they had gone astray, and so the Israelites who were left said to Moses, “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray the Lord to take the serpents from us.” And so, God answered Moses’s prayer by telling him to mount a model saraph serpent on a pole and if any person who has been bitten look at it, they will live.
This is a foreshadowing of Jesus being on the Cross and whoever looks at Him will also be healed. This is why it is so important to wear a crucifix and/or have at least one in our home and also in our room or study to ponder the Lord’s love and hopefully then embrace our Cross better in daily life – as well as carrying a Rosary on us.
Then in the second reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we learn from Saint Paul on how we can overcome our fallen human tendency to be ungrateful for the blessings of our lives: the example of Christ’s life. Jesus’ model of emptying Himself for the good of us all is something we need to frequently meditate upon.
We are also called to imitate this spiritual reality over the course of our life on earth. As Jesus said, it is by laying down our life for God and others that we gain it for eternity. And what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul in the process? Ponder that!
Finally in the Gospel we learn from Jesus that, He must be lifted up on the Cross, like the serpent, in the desert, so that everyone who believes in Him may have life eternal. What an amazing gift: Jesus laying down His life on the Cross for us! And what is the motive of God in all this? Jesus tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
The Triumph of the Cross! How beautiful and profound God’s love is for the human race and for each of us as individuals of that race. Let us respond to His love daily with a spirit of true faith in His teachings, with a spirit of gratitude, and striving with the help of His grace to empty ourselves of sin and selfishness with an attitude of holy docility, so that the Holy Spirit who we received in our Baptism can transform us more profoundly over time into the image of Jesus in all that we say, think and do to the glory of God the Father. Then the Cross God uniquely gives to each of us in our life to help us become a saint will not be an overwhelming burden, but instead the means to lead us to Heaven, to a joy beyond our imagining in the presence of the God of love: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
