Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
When I was in school I had to memorize Bible passages from time to time. One of these passages was John 3:16. As a result it’s so ingrained in my head that when I look at it now I find myself just skimming the words. This passage is for many people one of the most familiar quotations from the Bible: even if they know nothing else of the Bible they will likely know this quote. It is held up on placards during televised baseball and football games. It is part of the common language of American Christianity. Yet because it is so familiar its full impact is often lost on us—both its strangeness and its power are often overlooked. At the same time, it has recently become fashionable to wear a cross around one’s neck—rappers, pop stars, and other celebrities seem to have embraced the symbol as a fashion fad. In the process of looking at this we may forget how strange it is that a symbol of brutal punishment and ignominious death could have become for Christians a symbol of comfort, healing, and new life.
This familiar passage is read today as part of the Church’s celebration of the feast of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The readings for the day are all of a piece. In the first reading, Moses lifts up his staff and the people who have been bitten by serpents are saved. The story of Moses and the serpents is presented as a prefiguration of the exaltation of Christ on the cross. What was an image that threatened death (the image of the seraph serpent) became an image that led to healing and the saving of life. In the second reading Paul states that Jesus needed to humble himself before he could be exalted, even as we Christians have to live humbly in order to find favor with God.
And in the gospel reading Jesus talks about the meaning of the cross for you and me. It is interesting to me that in the gospel reading Jesus’ very familiar quotation is uttered in the context of his conversation with Nicodemus about eternal life. Nicodemus had come to Jesus in the middle of the night to find out how it is possible for people to be reborn to new life. Jesus’ response is that he himself is the way to eternal life and he models for his disciples the way to live in order to achieve it. Jesus also seems to offer an explanation for why he became a human being and died on the cross. He went through all of this in order to save human beings from sin and death.
The point of celebrating the Exaltation of the Cross is not to glorify death, but to celebrate Jesus Christ’s overcoming of death through his death on the cross. I am reminded here of the language of the Eucharistic prayer: “Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life.” On this holy day let us set aside a few moments for what the cross means for us in our lives today.
- Joel Schickel