The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“But they shouted, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him.’ Pilate said, ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king except Caesar.’ At that, Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

“They then took charge of Jesus. And carrying his own cross, he went out to The Place of the Skull, or as it is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. They crucified him with two others, one on either side, Jesus being in the middle. Pilate wrote out a notice and had it fixed on the cross that ran: Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews” (John 19:15-19).

Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It is now the only feast of the cross in the liturgical year.

We celebrate the cross. We're reminded that Christ was crucified not between two candles but between two thieves.

The liturgy of today tells us that we should glory in the Cross of Christ. The cross has great meaning for us.

Some saints have said that joy and happiness in this world “have their roots in the form of a cross” (Josemaría Escrivá, The Forge, Point 28). Our liberation from many things comes in and through the cross.

Pope St. John Paul II liked to say that in Christ, we find the meaning and the purpose of our life. That holds not just for Catholics, but for every person on the planet. Every last person in China finds the meaning and the purpose of their life in Christ.

We could say that, in particular, we find the meaning and the purpose of our life in Christ on the Cross, because so many things are answered in and through this sign of contradiction.

Often, we pray: “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world” (Prayer, The Way of the Cross).

I heard of a priest in Sydney, Australia, who was giving a homily. He told how one time he was passing through Pakistan, and he was shown an old French missionary who was very bent and asked what happened to him.

He was told he was imprisoned in a communist prison in China, and they kept him in a cage where he couldn't stand up straight, he couldn't lie down straight, he couldn't sit straight.

Every day they came to him and said, ‘Tomorrow, we're going to execute you.’ This went on for many months.

After nine months, they came and said, ‘Tomorrow, we're going to exile you.’ That night, twenty communist guards came to him and said, ‘We want to be baptized.’

He said to them, ‘Why do you want to be baptized? You don't know anything about the Christian faith; you have no formation. If it's found out that you've become a Christian, you might receive the same fate as me.’

They said, ‘We've been watching you. We've seen your peace and your serenity in the face of the brutal treatment that we've been giving to you. We've come to conclude that any God who can give you such peace and serenity in the face of such difficult challenges—that's a God worth believing in, so we want to be baptized.’

The cross is always fruitful. We don't know in what ways, where, or how, Our Lord is going to bring fruit from the crosses that He allows us to bear, but we do know the fruits will come. “My chosen ones do not work in vain” (Isa. 65:23).

“In all truth, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest” (John 12:24).

The cross is not just a punishment, or not just suffering. It's something marvelous, something glorious. It's the pathway to fruitfulness, to the eternal wedding feast.

We can thank God for the crosses that He sends us. They're signs of divine love and predilection.

Very often the souls that God loves most are the souls He allows to suffer most.

Christ was on the cross. The soldiers and other people around, and particularly the bad thief, said, “If you are God, come down off that silly cross, and then we will believe” (cf. Matt. 27:42). This is the devil speaking. The devil has hatred for the cross.

When Peter spoke to Jesus, saying, we will never allow these bad things to happen to you, Christ said the very unusual words, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matt. 16:22-23).

Those words were reserved for Peter. Jesus never called the Pharisees, Satan. But anything that would take Him away from the instrument of that salvation was coming from the devil.

Even though all these people encouraged Christ to come down off the cross, Christ didn't come down off the cross. He remained on the cross. He remained there for three long hours. Jesus was a very tough man.

On the other hand, the good thief looked across at this other criminal who was being crucified with Him and said those amazing words, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).

When he looked across, he didn't just see a criminal, he saw a King. He looked with supernatural vision.

The crown of thorns had become a royal crown. The nail in His hands had become the scepter with which He reigned. The cross of wood had become a royal throne.

In his dying moments, he made that act of faith and hope, and he heard the beautiful words of Our Lord, “This day, you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

“Who, being in the form of God,” said St. Paul, “did not count equality with God as something to be grasped; but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are, and being in every way like a human being. He was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on the cross” (Phil. 2:6-8).

Christ became “obedient unto death” and emptied Himself on the cross. He gave Himself completely, a great symbol of sacrifice; and in that process, He showed us the meaning of human love.

In modern culture, one of the buzzwords is ‘feeling.’ We often have the message portrayed to us that when you have nice feelings, that's when you're in love. Taste the feeling, feel the feeling, you can't beat that feeling.

But Christ on the Cross did not say, You can't beat this feeling. Christ must have felt awful, and yet He said, “Greater love than this no man has, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

One very useful way to handle the little crosses that God may permit in our life is to offer them for other people, for friends, for relatives, for people who need some special grace, or for some petition that we want, for some virtue that we'd like to learn how to live.

We can learn to love the cross and thank God for the crosses that He sends us. Possibly we realize that they could be much worse.

We're told in St. Paul, “I rejoice now in the sufferings I bear for your sake. What is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, I fill up in my own body for the Church” (Col. 1:24).

There is nothing lacking in the sufferings of Christ. But often what is lacking is our participation in those sufferings, our unity to the Cross, or our acceptance of the crosses that God may permit.

Devotion to the Cross dates back to the earliest days of Christianity. Today the Church commemorates the recovery of the True Cross and places before us this idea of exaltation. We lift up the Cross because we triumph in and through the Cross.

One of the prayers of the liturgy said, “How radiant is that precious cross which brought us salvation. Through the cross we are victorious, with the cross we shall reign, by the cross all evil is destroyed” (Liturgy of the Hours, Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Morning Prayer).

Ever since we were small, we were taught how to make the Sign of the Cross. Try and help your children to make the Sign of the Cross well, a sign of our faith. It's not something to do in a superficial or passing way, because the cross means something very special to us.

The Church makes use of the cross on its altars during worship and has its place outside on sacred buildings.

Some saints recommend having a crucifix in front of us as we work, to offer up the little crosses of each day, or the effort that we need to put into our work, or the demands that may come with our work: tiredness, frustration, failure, effort, energy.

St. John Damascene says, “The Cross is a shield against the devil as well as a trophy of victory. It is the promise that we will not be overcome by the Angel of Death” (St. John Damascene, De fide ortodoxa).

Christ triumphed on the cross (Col. 2:15). He triumphed over death, He triumphed over evil, He triumphed over the devil.

St. John Damascene says, “The Cross is God's instrument to lift up those who have fallen and to support those still on their feet fighting. It is a crutch for the crippled and a guide for the wayward.

“It is our constant goal as we advance, the very wellspring of our body and soul. It drives away all evils, annihilates sin, and draws down for us abundant goods. This is indeed the seed of the Resurrection and the tree of eternal life” (Ibid.).

In the [Opening Prayer] of today's Mass, we pray, “God our Father, in obedience to you, your only Son accepted death on the cross for the salvation of mankind. We acknowledge the mystery of the cross on earth. May we receive the gift of redemption in heaven.”

The Church in our liturgy uses those words, “the mystery of the cross.” The cross is a mystery. Very often in the various ways it comes to us, we don't fully understand it: Why me? Why now? Why this?

There may be the little crosses that come along each day, the usual little things, disappointments, bad news, changes of plans.

But there might be something in the course of our life that comes along that we never expected, never thought would happen to us. And possibly, that cross that God has permitted may never really go away.

If you find something like that in your life, you can be sure that this is the cross that God has wanted for me. This is what He has planned for me for all eternity. This is my pathway to holiness.

That cross can be manifested through sickness, poverty, tiredness, pain, loneliness. We could examine in our prayer today our habitual disposition on coming face to face with the cross.

Though it may be hard to bear at times, the encounter with it can become a source of purification, life, and joy if it is embraced with love, because we know that when we’ve found the cross, we’ve found Christ. He is there.

Embracing the cross should lead us never to complain when confronting difficulties, and even to thank God for the suffering, or the failures, or the setbacks that purify us.

There may be some great divine plan behind those things. Such adversities should be additional occasions for drawing us closer to God.

I knew a man who was bankrupt once in another country. He was in a support group. He had cancer and the other people in the support group were rather wealthy.

Then they heard of some new treatment that had come out in Houston. One by one, other members of the support group flew off to Houston to try out this new anti-cancer drug.

He was telling me: “You know, I was complaining to God. It's not fair. The rich people can afford to go and have this new drug, and I can't afford it. I'm bankrupt. I can't leave the country. This isn't fair.” That was his prayer for a long time.

Then he told me that after three months, the first one died; and after six months, the second one died; after nine months, the third one died.

He said, “A year later, I'm still here. Now my prayer is: Thank you, Lord, thank you.”

Sometimes we don't immediately see the mystery or the Hand of God behind the crosses that He may send us.

The Church invites us to adore the cross. Today is a good day to kiss the cross.

On Good Friday, we genuflect in front of the cross, because on that day we identify the cross with the blood of Christ that soaked the Cross, which represents the one sacrifice at which Our Lord, “obedient, even unto death” (Phil. 2:8), accomplished our salvation. There's a great symbolism there.

Normally, we may find the cross in the little things of each day. A man told me once how the one thing that he disliked was going shopping with his wife to the supermarket on a Saturday afternoon and pushing the trolley up and down the lanes as she picked off different things and sometimes changed her mind.

He would get more and more exasperated. So, his battle in his spiritual life was to keep his big mouth shut. He used to come back each week and say, ‘I managed not to say anything this week.’

And the next week he came back, and said, ‘I managed to keep quiet.’

The third week, he came and he said, ‘You know, I think my wife is beginning to notice, because this week she turned around and she asked me: What's the matter? Are you sick? And I had to tell her: Can't you see I'm about to explode?’

So, there may be very simple ordinary crosses that God permits, areas where He asks us for a little more sacrifice, maybe a little more silence, a little more patience, a little more charity.

The Lord blesses those He loves with the cross. It’s the sign of special love from God. Possibly He wants to bestow great graces on us for those things that He allows.

May we joyfully embrace the encounter, and thus be supernaturally effective, because God's love alone is capable of satisfying the human heart. Herein lies sanctity. Let us always bear the cross with love.

“Are you suffering some great tribulation? Do you have setbacks? Say very slowly, as if savoring the words, this powerful and manly prayer: ‘May the most just and most lovable will of God be done, be fulfilled, be praised, and eternally exalted above all things. Amen, amen.’ I assure you that you'll find peace” (J. Escrivá, The Way, Point 691).

We say with the liturgy, “Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life” (Roman Missal, Memorial Acclamation).

It's very appropriate that the Church uses these words, “the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.” It's the means to so many things. Christ without the cross would be a caricature of Christ.

By the way that we carry the little crosses that God permits in our life, we attain great sanctity, but, also, we give great example in our family—to our spouse, to our children—about how to carry the crosses that God may permit them in their lives, hopefully, teaching them how to find peace, meaning, love in and through the cross.

Often there's a light in the cross. The Holy Spirit speaks to us in those moments. We may be closer to God than in other moments. There's a joy in the cross. There's a rest in the cross.

We're told in The Forge, “Now, when the Cross has become a serious and weighty matter, Jesus will see to it that we are filled with peace. He will become our Simon of Cyrene, to lighten the load for us.

“Then say to him, trustingly: ‘Lord, what kind of a Cross is this? A Cross which is no cross. Now I know the trick. It is to abandon myself in you; and from now on, with your help, all my crosses will always be like this’” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, Point 764).

There can be joy in the cross. Each day, we can try to smile when the cross comes. The spirit of struggle that Our Lord wants for us is a smiling spirit of struggle.

We're told in The Forge, “You tell me: ‘I have made up my mind to go more often to the Paraclete, to ask him for his light.’ —Good. But remember, my child, that the Holy Spirit comes as a result of the Cross” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, Point 759).

If God asks us for a lot, it's because He wants to give us a lot. There's great fruitfulness there.

In one of the hymns, Crux fidelis, it says, “Cross, most faithful, you are the noblest tree of all. No other tree can compare with your leaves, your flower, and your fruit.”

Love for the cross produces abundant fruit in the soul and helps us to discover Jesus immediately. He comes out to meet us, bears the cross on His own shoulders. Whatever may be the most burdensome part of any trial that we experience, He's there.

Our suffering, in union with the Master’s, is no longer an evil that oppresses us. It becomes a means of union with God.

Chiara Lubich, founder of Focolare, says, “If you are suffering, unite your sorrow to His sorrow, unite your Mass to His. The world will probably not understand this advice, but do not be disturbed. It is enough that Jesus, Mary, and the saints know what is going on. Live in union with them…, and let your blood flow for the benefit of all mankind…just as He did” (Chiara Lubich, Meditations).

The cross of every day is a great opportunity to help souls around us to grow. It can be the prayer of the senses. They offer this for this soul and for that soul, this other person, that they may come closer to God.

With that prayer or when we offer those little crosses, we show Our Lord that we're serious about what we're asking. The prize for all that suffering is eternal and satisfying.

In general, all sufferings pass. Sometimes the devil may try to tempt us with the thought that this headache is your lot for eternity; it will never go away. But we know that's not the reality.

We're told by St. Josemaría in The Way of the Cross, “Is it not true that as soon as you cease to be afraid of the Cross, of what people call the cross, when you set your will to accept the Will of God, then you find happiness, and all your worries, all your sufferings, physical or moral, pass away?

“Truly the Cross of Jesus is gentle and lovable. There, sorrows cease to count; there is only the joy of knowing that we are co-redeemers with Him” (J. Escrivá, The Way of the Cross, Second Station).

Our friendship with Our Lord will teach us to bear the difficulties that crop up with a firm and youthful spirit. We'll know how to laugh at these situations. That helps us not to complain or to give in to sadness.

All adversity can be a stimulus for us. We can accept it cheerfully, as one more obstacle to be overcome. In that way, we become more identified with Christ.

Joy and optimism during rough moments is not a fruit of temperament or of age. It's born of a deep interior life and the frequent consideration that I am a child of God.

Our serene perspective on passing events can create a very positive tone in our family, while we are at work, and in all our social relations. This equanimity then will be an occasion for others to draw closer to Our Lord.

Shortly after he was elected Pope in 2005, Pope Benedict said, “The cross [suffering] is the way to transformation; without it, nothing is transformed” (Benedict XVI, Address, July 25, 2005).

We're told in The Forge, “We cannot, must not, be easygoing, sugar-candy Christians: on earth, there must be sorrow and the Cross” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, Point 762).

I was giving a retreat one time, and there was an elderly teacher there, who I knew had some health problems. I asked him, ‘How are things now?’

And he told me, ‘Father, I've come to realize that happiness does not consist in doing things that are easy.’

I was very impressed with that wisdom. Very often we look for happiness in the easy things. But to be happy, we don't so much need an easy life, but a heart that is in love.

We're told in The Forge, “When you walk where Christ walked; when you are no longer just resigned to the Cross, but your whole soul takes on its form—takes on its very shape; when you love the Will of God; when you actually love the Cross…then, only then, is it He who carries it” (Ibid., Point 770).

“These are the unmistakable signs,” we're told in The Forge also, “of the true Cross of Christ: serenity, a deep feeling of peace, a love which is ready for any sacrifice, a great effectiveness which wells from Christ's wounded side. And always—and evidently— cheerfulness: a cheerfulness which comes from knowing that those who truly give themselves are beside the Cross, and therefore, beside Our Lord” (Ibid., Point 772).

The one who was beside the Cross and beside Our Lord, in a very special way, was Our Lady. We know that whenever we find the cross in our life, we know that Our Lady is there, very close to us, helping us to rise to the occasion.

Mary, may you help us to say frequently: “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

OLV