The largest segment of the Liturgical Year is Ordinary Time, spanning 34 out of 52 weeks of the year. Ordinariness is important because it allows special occasions and seasons to feel different from the norm. The balance of the ordinary and the special gives our lives a balance. Too much of the ordinary and things become dull and lifeless. Too much of the special and we tend to burn out or become numb to what is so special. One of the “special celebrations” that we have during the liturgical ordinariness of September is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the 14th day of the month.
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross dates back to the 4th century, when the solemn consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem took place on Sept. 13, 335. This church is located on the site of Jesus’ crucifixion. This feast also celebrates the Christian victory over the Persians in 628, which led to the recovery of relics of the cross and their return to Jerusalem.
Over the years the focus of this liturgical feast became a joyous celebration of the mystery of the cross. Jesus Christ transformed the cross from an instrument of shame and suffering into an instrument for our salvation. Crucifixion was the most brutal and torturous form of execution used in the Roman Empire. More than a mere form of punishment for offenders, it was a means of cultivating fear among those who lived under Roman occupation. The Roman army kept the peace among conquered populations with the threat of intense suffering and public shaming if their power was questioned or challenged in any way. Jesus, convinced of God’s great love and mercy for humanity, was willing to experience the worst that humanity could do to him. Jesus’ resurrection upended everything that that humanity thought it knew about strength, power, and the finality of death. By raising Jesus from the dead, God revealed to all of creation that love, and only love, is stronger than death. Loving mercy that is willing to give itself through suffering is the path to everlasting life. The symbol of the cross, thus, was transformed from one of fear, shame, and death to one of freedom, hope, and life. That is a great mystery to celebrate!
Pope Francis said in a homily for this feast day:
“How often do we long for a Christianity of winners, a triumphalist Christianity that is important and influential, that receives glory and honor? Yet a Christianity without a cross is a worldly Christianity, and shows itself to be sterile. The suffering of the cross, its necessity in life, its reality as a way of following Christ is not what we celebrate on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Instead we celebrate the glory of the cross, the cross as a reason for boasting and not for weeping is given pride of place on this day. We exalt the Cross of Jesus, because in the cross God’s great love for humanity was fully revealed.
The mercy of God, which embraces the whole world, springs from the Cross. Through the Cross of Christ, the Evil One is overcome, death is defeated, life is given to us, hope is restored. This is important: through the Cross of Christ hope is restored to us. The Cross of Jesus is our one true hope!”
“Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.”
Come let us worship. (Good Friday The Adoration of the Holy Cross)
By Sister Janet Marie Flemming, OSB