For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/
Lord Jesus, exalted on the cross, have mercy on us and on the whole world!
Lord Jesus, who did not despise the shame of the cross, have mercy on us and on the whole world!
Lord Jesus, who did not come to condemn the world but to save it, have mercy on us and on the whole world!
Mary, who mourned for your Son at the foot of the cross, pray for us!
Fr. Robert Barron from Chicago, in the homily that he composed for this Sunday's feast, which is rarely celebrated on a Sunday, helped to resensitize me to the absurdity of the name of today's feast - the Exaltation of the Cross. Fr. Barron asks whether it would be absurd to imagine exalting the electric chair, lethal injection, or a noose used for hanging criminals. How much more absurd would it be to gather to celebrate state-sponsored torture or terrorism, which is in effect what crucifixion was for the Roman empire, a way of terrorizing people by completely humiliating a person. People were invited to watch as an example was made of a person left naked on a cross for days until he suffocated himself. This is the most gruesome torture, not done in private, but intentionally in public to terrorize people. In celebrating the Feast of the Holy Cross this weekend, we are in effect doing something absurd, were it not for our faith which puts such a great meaning of love into the Holy Cross on which our Lord died. Were it not for our faith, the straightforward meaning of our celebration today would be a gather to exalt execution, torture and terrorism. People would rightly think us sick.
The first disciples who witnessed Jesus' resurrection, however, were able to look back at Jesus' whole life and to understand why the cross was necessary, and what is more, why the meaning of the cross would transcend the meaning we place, for example, on the electric chair. No, the cross is not merely an instrument of execution, it is instead the most powerful sign of love the world has ever known. What is more, Jesus' witness on the cross became for those early Christians one of the most important signs Jesus' ever preformed, more important, certainly, because it was his last sign before His resurrection, but more important, as well, because it was a sign meant for the eternal healing of the world, not a sign worked for the benefit of only a few who were with Jesus when He walked and talked in Galilee. It took a few centuries for the early Church to realize the power of this sign, but when She did realize that the cross was to be exalted and celebrated, it has undoubtedly become the predominant sign, other than the Eucharist, of Christ's incomparable love for His bride, the Church. As we know well in our Catholic tradition, the cross is exalted wherever the Eucharist is celebrated, either by a processional cross, an altar cross, or a cross made visible for all the faithful to contemplate and venerate, so that the faithful who receive the merits of the cross most intimately during communion, may easily contemplate the redemptive love that has come forward in history since the time the Lord hung upon that tree.
The sign of the cross is prefigured for us in our first reading from Numbers. The penalty for the disobedience of the Israelites was a plague of serpents, but once Moses lifted a serpent up on a pole, all who gazed upon the serpent were healed. So too, the penalty for the pride of Adam, in which we all participate, for we all are guilty of trying to exalt ourselves over and against God, is death through the eating of fruit from a tree. The cure for this death we all inherit, however, is the eating of the fruit from the tree of life, the body and the blood of our Lord offered for the salvation of the world on the wood of the cross. The Isralites died at the hands of serpents, but it is through a serpent they were healed. Our pride makes us liable to death whenever we suspect that God who is all good and all loving does not really desire our good, but is holding out on us somehow, so much so that we have to determine what is good for ourselves, choosing to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But the humility of Jesus, who as a man did not deem equality with God something to be grapsed at, rather emptying Himself and taking the form of a slave, gives us access once again to what was lost by Adam, a dynamic and enduring relationship with God who is the source of life, as we eat the true and enduring wisdom of God, Jesus Christ Himself through the Blessed Sacrament. Eating the fruit of the tree in the garden may enable us to determine good and evil however we see fit, without anyone being the boss of us, so to speak. But eating the fruit of that tree does not make us free. The one who is truly free is the one who eats the fruit from the wood of the cross. Whoever eats the fruit of the tree which is the Holy Cross that we exalt today will never die, but will share in the wisdom and life and love of God forever.
This, I suppose, is where this homily should end, with a discussion of who is truly free. Jesus, facing the sentence of death, was reminded by Pilate that Pilate had the power to crucify Him. Jesus shows the meaning of real freedom when He says that Pilate does not have the power to crucify Him, for Jesus freely chose to be crucified. In the same way, those of us gathered here tonight are free to pursue power, success, or the immediate fulfillment of our many pressing desires. Those who are most free in this Church tonight, however, are those who are ready to freely lay down their lives for someone and something greater than themselves. Pope Benedict in his first encyclical to us, Deus Caritas Est, God is love, delineated for us two kinds of love, eros and agape, that are meant to come together in God, who is love! Eros is a beautiful, romantic kind of love that seeks to add beautiful things to our lives to make our lives better. Yet eros that does not mature into agape leads to narcissism - we can become trapped into trying to make everything good, including God, a bigger part of our lives, without ever considering how we are to make a complete gift of our lives to someone or something else. Adding great things to our lives, most notably the love of others, should lead us erotically to this sacrifice of love that is right before us, where Jesus reveals his readiness to be our spouse and savior, loving us completely and precisely at our weakest point. Our search for the very best things in life should lead us here, where we encounter a love that knows no limits, and a person who is free enough to place His life into the hands of sinners for the salvation of all. Once we receive this love in the Eucharist however, it should make us realize all the more that eros that is not turned into agape is narcissistic. What is deepest within a person is not the erotic desire to add things to our lives; no, what is deepest within us is the desire to make a perfect gift of ourselves in love. What brings ultimate meaning and purpose and deep happiness, joy and peace to our lives is finding something worth dying for, and then accepting the challenge of giving our lives as quickly and as completely as we can. This great mystery of love and the meaning of the human person is contained in the sign of the cross. That is why we exalt the cross with great faith and devotion, and draw special attention to it tonight as we celebrate this great feast! +m
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