The readings for Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091425.cfm
Today, we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,
a Feast that invites us
not simply to remember the Cross,
but to lift it up, to honor it,
and most importantly, to let it reshape our lives.
But this is hard,
because we live in a world
that avoids the cross.
In this day and age especially,
many of us are bombarded by media telling us -
that suffering is meaningless,
that success is measured by comfort,
and that our worth is tied
to how much we produce, achieve or earn.
We're conditioned that every pain should be medicated,
that failure is weakness,
and that sacrifice is an old, outdated notion.
Even in our spiritual lives, the temptation is often
to seek only the blessings of God,
and rarely the cross of Christ.
But today’s Gospel, tells us something radically different -
“So must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
Because it's only through the cross -
through Christ’s suffering and death - that salvation comes.
Jesus does not avoid the cross - He embraces it.
And in doing so, He shows us that suffering is not empty.
Pain is not meaningless.
And that love - true love - always - involves sacrifice.
Today, we live in a time of deep divisions -
socially, politically, even spiritually.
Consider just the events of this past week,
fear, violence, and hatred seem everywhere.
Yet, St. John reminds us of God's response to brokenness,
“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.”
He didn’t send a political solution or a new law or even an angel.
He gave His Son - to die on a cross
because that is what love looks like.
Yet, somehow we still seem to think we can follow
a crucified Savior and live a perfectly comfortable life.
But this world needs witnesses, not opinions.
People willing to live sacrificial love
in their families, their workplaces and in public.
The good news is that
we don’t have to be martyred to celebrate this feast.
Every time we forgive someone
who doesn’t deserve it - we lift high the cross.
Every time we choose patience
instead of reacting or retaliating - we carry the cross.
Every time we stand up for truth when it’s unpopular,
or choose integrity when it costs us -
we are exalting the cross.
Because being a disciple of Christ,
isn’t about escaping suffering,
it’s about redeeming that suffering through Him,
from the inside out.
The cross is not just a sign of suffering,
it's a sign of victory. That's why we exalt it.
The cross - an instrument of death
that became the source of life.
We wear it around our necks,
hang it in our homes, trace it on our bodies,
and mark it on our graves.
Because the worst act this world could ever do -
to kill the Son of God -
became our doorway to eternal life.
This week,
Let us pray for the strength
not to run away from the crosses in our life.
Whether they be chronic illness,
broken relationships, or deep struggles -
remembering that Christ is in our cross,
and wants to redeem it.
Let us pray for the strength
to choose sacrificial love daily.
In a world of convenient answers and shallow comforts,
let us live the deeper truth that real love costs something.
Because if it doesn’t cost - it probably isn’t love.
And Let us pray for the strength
to hold fast to the hope of the resurrection -
where the cross is not the end, but the way to glory.
That when we exalt the cross,
when we lift it high through our day-to-day lives -
we are proclaiming to the world
that God so loved the world.
Let us lift high the Cross as a declaration,
that in the face of suffering, we will not despair.
That in the face of division, we will choose love.
That in the shadow of death, we will look forward with hope
to the resurrection.
Lifting high the cross.
Living by the cross.
And letting the world see
through us
and through our own cross,
that love has won.
