This year, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross falls on a Sunday, the 24th in ordinary time. The feast supplants the regular Sunday readings and prayers, which very rarely happens. The change underscores just how deeply the Church honors the Holy Cross.
As we look at the feast, we see that the assigned Gospel Reading contains perhaps the single most famous passage from the Bible in American culture - John 3:16: "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." The passage is often quoted especially by fundamentalist and evangelical Christians and is a favorite verse to hold up on signs at sporting events. How does the Catholic Church interpret this passage?
The theological understanding of John 3:16 revolves around the concept of expiation. God is love and he created the world out of love in order to share his love with us. However, humanity fell through human sin. Since God is infinite, God's justice is also infinite, which entails that any offense against God has infinite consequences. Given that human beings are finite by nature, no human act could possibly atone for the sins of humanity against God.
But God did not want to leave humanity mired in sin, cut off from his infinite love. Therefore, God took all of the sins of humanity upon himself. God became incarnate, taking on a human nature. He came among us as one of us and died upon the Cross for us. Through his sacrifice on the Cross, Christ, who is God himself, atoned for the sins of humanity, reconciling us with God's justice.
The bronze serpent Moses made in the desert foreshadowed the crucifixion of Christ. The Israelites had fallen into sin and God sent serpents to punish them. But as long as they looked upon the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses, they were not killed by the serpent bites.
Throughout the centuries, the church has interpreted the Old Testament as always pointing toward Christ. Each aspect of the Old Testament in some way prefigures Christ, sometimes very clearly and sometimes a bit more obliquely. In the case of the serpents, looking upon the bronze serpents saved the lives of the Israelites. By analogy, Christ Crucified is our salvation. Christ Crucified gives us eternal life.
Christ upon the cross is the key to life. Through his expiation, Christ atoned for our sins and has given us eternal life, if we accept his gift of love. The Cross also helps us make sense of suffering in this life. All of us will suffer profoundly in life. Some suffering can be prevented or alleviated, and when possible, we should not hesitate to do so. However, all of our lives will be visited by some profound suffering that we cannot get rid of. But when we accept such suffering and unite it with the suffering of Christ, we will paradoxically feel a tremendous amount of peace. Indeed, we can rejoice, even in the midst of great suffering.
But we can and should go beyond simply making peace with our suffering. There is one more important step, which is offering our suffering up for others. Catholic spirituality has always held that suffering has spiritual value and we can offer the value of our suffering for others. By doing so, we can gain spiritual benefits for others.
The most pure way to offer up our suffering is to offer it for those who have caused us to suffer in the first place. Thereby, we can help them receive spiritual benefits. Thereby, we repay them with good for evil, just as Jesus instructed us to do.
Indeed, the prime example of offering suffering up for those who caused it is Christ himself. Christ was upon the Cross because of our sins against him. He suffered because of us. And yet, he offered the spiritual value of his suffering up for us, thereby gaining for us salvation. Years ago, the acronym WWJD was very popular - What would Jesus do? We know what he would do in our life circumstances from what he has already modeled for us to do. To emulate Christ, we should embrace the Cross we are carrying and offer its spiritual fruits for others, especially for our enemies. That is the most Christ-like thing we can do.
As we contemplate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which always falls on September 14, we should also bear in mind that the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is always observed the next day, on September 15. As Mother of God, the Virgin Mary had a unique role in the saving work of Christ. Not only did she watch her Divine Son suffer, but given her special connection to Christ, she experienced in her being the full extent of Christ's suffering. Therefore, she suffered more greatly than any other human, other than the human nature of Christ.
The Virgin Mary is our spiritual mother. As the perfect mother, she is there for us whenever we need her help. Having experienced the depths of human suffering in her own person, she is there to help and comfort us as we suffer. She will always help us to unite our suffering with Christ Crucified, which will lead us to experience a deep sense of peace and joy even in the midst of our sorrow. Therefore, let us not hesitate to call upon her help day after day for the rest of our lives.
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The readings for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Cycle C, are:
Numbers 21:4b-9
Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38
Philippians 2:6-11
John 3:13-17
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Wayside cross in Baroña, Galicia, Spain, from Wikimedia Commons.