Feast of Exaltation of the cross
Today the church
celebrates the Feast of Exaltation of the Cross. The Cross of Christ, the
centre and pinnacle of God’s saving work, is also the centerpiece of our faith.
The cross reveals the most profound depths of God’s love: “God loved the world
so much that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
tells us that “the cross … is the definitive sign par excellence given to us so
that we might understand the truth about man and the truth about God; we have
all been created and redeemed by a God who sacrificed his only Son out of love.
This is why the Crucifixion … is the culmination of that turning of God against
himself in which he give himself in order to raise man up and save him. This is
love in its most radical form.” (Deus Caritas Est, 12)
The symbolism of power
hidden in the cross is often lost on us, and is only revealed as a mystery of
revelation. The Cross represents the Sovereign authority of God and his
providence. This is certainly difficult to comprehend. Yet, what seems to us to
be failure is, in God’s eyes, the victory of sacrificial love. It is on the
cross, that Christ receives the highest exaltation from God, ironically, at the
moment he suffered the greatest humiliation at the hands of men. As Christ was
lifted up on the Cross, now by means of the Cross, he lifts up humanity, and
indeed all creation. As today’s gospel reminds us, “for God sent his Son into
the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be
saved”. The Cross possesses the power to forgive sins which are hidden, the power
to heal consciences and human hearts. It is there that we have been set free of
the debt of sin and liberated from the clutches of death.
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