Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Lectionary: 638

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.

From being a strange interloper I became the welcome pastor when I replaced the large crucifix above the altar where it belonged. It had been displaced by the banner of several foreign nations which appealed only to a minority of the church.

The cross of Jesus Christ appeals to everyone, for he himself said, "When I am lifted up I will draw everyone to myself." (John 12:32)

There will always be, of course, those who fear and despise the cross. It reminds us of our human frailty and inevitable death. Not to mention our barbaric treatment of one another, and our helplessness in the face of such behavior. Without God's grace, humans react violently to strangers, aliens, and others; and with particular savagery when the other is holy -- or God himself. 

The cross is a sign that will always be contradicted as Simeon told our Mother Mary. It is a sign of contradiction to every ambitious desire that would challenge God's freedom, integrity, and authority. 

And yet we are drawn ineluctably to the outstretched arms of Jesus. As Saint Augustine said, humans are drawn to love like iron to a magnet. And seeing Jesus shed his blood for us even as he surrenders in perfect obedience to his Father's love for us, we must go to him. 

As I share the concerns of many for the critical issues that face the nation and our planet, I am all the more convinced that we must lift high the cross. We're too easily distracted by pressing concerns, like climate change, mass immigration, an endangered democracy, and the growing world-wide threats of tyrants. I fear racism, gun violence, and the epidemic of suicide. I am concerned about consumerism, abortion, intimate partner abuse, and innumerable forms of addiction. 

But my greatest concern is the loss of faith, and the outright war on religion. Like the city of Rome which arrested, detained, and executed Christians even as it sedated the populace with bread and circuses, our entertainment culture cynically benumbs us with sports, idiot sitcoms, and partisan politics, denounces Abrahamic religions, and wrings its hands about all the crises we created. 

During such times, the faithful go to the cross. We search for shelter within the wounds of Jesus, we find comfort in his Sacred Heart; and take nourishment from his flesh and blood. We practice our religion and rest in the Lord even as the world screams, "Don't you even care that we are perishing?" 

We do care, and that's why we pray. We thank God for the crosses he has given us, and carry them each day with the confident hope that our sacrifices make a difference far beyond anything we can see or imagine. 

Prayer is like gravity; its reach is endless, and the entire universe is subject to it. Nothing escapes gravity and nothing escapes our prayer and the all-seeing wisdom of God. And so we...

Lift high the cross, the love of Christ pro­claim

Till all the world adore His sac­red name.