Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
(Numbers 21:4b-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17)
Some see in the figure of a cross the hope of
transcendence. A horizontal line
signifies a never-changing end of life.
Things may improve from one generation to the next, but everyone is
terminal. The cross, however, has a
vertical component breaking through the relentless movement toward death. This pole promises glory beyond the struggles
of the world. Paul expresses this work in the passage from Philippians. Because Christ accepted death on a cross, God
raised him to glory.
Early Christians especially saw the cross as a sign of
contradiction. To them the cross represented
Rome’s cruelest form of execution. It meant
torture and death. Yet Christ, by dying
on a cross and then rising from the dead, turned the cross into an instrument
of life. Today’s first reading reveals
the cross as a sign of contradiction. The
Israelites having been bitten by serpents were dying from infection. But when
they looked on the serpents mounted on the pole, they were cured of the snakes’
venom.
Today’s gospel expresses still another Christian view of the
cross. The cross becomes the sign of
God’s love for us. When Jesus tells of
the Son of Man being lifted up, he is speaking of both his crucifixion and his
resurrection. When we look upon him as
our savior, we avail ourselves of God’s love that enfolds us into eternal life.
