Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Two weeks back, the gospel reading was the passage where Jesus says to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” I had preached a homily on the meaning of “carrying our crosses.” Today, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, I would like you hear this quote. It is a quote by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, a Franciscan Capuchin priest and also the papal household preacher for both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict. He says, "It is no longer you who carry the cross; it is the cross that carries you; the cross does not crush but exalts you." I find great comfort in the fact that this year the feast of the exaltation of the cross falls on a Sunday, so that the entire Church can reflect on the power of the cross of Jesus Christ.
I would like the draw three lessons from each of the readings to offer three points to reflect upon.
1. The Evil Within. Today’s first reading is the story of the people of Israel fleeing from Egypt and their journey through the desert before they reach the Promised Land. While in the desert, they are bitten by poisonous snakes and many of them died. More striking is the reason behind this malaise. God sent these serpents as a punishment for the people’s rebellion. If the Israelites were oppressed for four hundred years in Egypt, why this further oppression in the desert? I think the lesson of this story lies in understanding the way evil works. Evil can come from outside and within the human person. Just because the people of Israel were liberated from the external evil of slavery did not mean that they were also free from within. The potential for evil within them was as destructive as the evil from without. The power for internal freedom was a choice that lay within them. True freedom could only come if they would form their inner selves according to God’s commandments. And they constantly struggled in this process. They always lacked in trust in God, they constantly grumbled against God and Moses, and they often gave into the temptation to erect altars to other gods. For us too, whereas we have little power over the evil outside us, the potential for evil within us lies within our power. The lesson, then, is simple. If we allow the evil within us to control us then evil will overpower us. To succumb to the evil within is to embrace death.
2. Humility, Obedience & Self-Emptying: The Secret to Power over Evil. The second reading from the letter to the Philippians (poetically beautiful in itself), bears great significance in light of the slavery of the Israelites and their rebellion in the desert. This hymn about Christ says that “he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.” Ironically, Jesus became exactly that from which God had liberated the Israelites. Jesus became a salve because he did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped; he became a slave by emptying himself, by “becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” The obedience that Jesus practiced in life, his suffering and in his death on the cross is what the Israelites should have practiced in the desert. By his humility, his emptying himself and his obedience, Jesus conquers evil both within and without. The secret to conquering evil within lies in the verses immediately preceding this hymn to Christ. Paul says, “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others. Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus….” This is what the Israelites had yet to learn. And this is what we have to learn. It takes nothing short of Christ-like humility, obedience, and self-emptying to gain power over evil. It takes nothing short of the mind of Christ to develop this kind of spiritual maturity. We are being invited to “have the same attitude as that of Christ.”
3. The Cross Caries You. This brings us to the significance of the cross and the reason for today’s feast. To see God as the God who further oppressed the Israelites in the desert is to totally miss the point. God is the God of the living and the dead. The God who sent serpents into their midst is also the God who found a way for them to live. God found a way to bring life in the midst of evil, despair and death. The ‘serpent raised up on a pole and everyone looking at to find life’ was only a prototype of God’s immense love for his people. The serpent on a pole was not the ultimate sign of God’s love; It was his Son on the cross. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” In God’s immeasurable love, God wills that all of humanity should be set free from evil within and without. Now we understand Jesus’ words, “God so loved that world that he gave his only Son… so that the world might be saved through him.” And Jesus saves us all by his humble, obedient, self-emptying death on the cross. As Fr. Cantalamessa says, "It is no longer you who carry the cross; it is the cross that carries you; the cross does not crush but exalts you." The cross of Christ is not our burden but our salvation, our hope and our redemption.
Let me conclude with the words of Paul. “Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” May this Eucharist be our exaltation of the same Christ. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph