The Triumph of the Cross

In today's gospel (John 3:13-17), Jesus talks not of hellfire, but of eternal life: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (see first reading, Numbers 21:4b-9), so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." What does this mean? As Christians, we rightly think of the Cross, but at the same time, it has a second meaning: the exaltation of Jesus to "the right hand of God."

Photo by Mark Hoggard

The cross is everywhere in Christian life: in our churches, in our art, traced upon ourselves. It is this sign with which we bless ourselves, others, and various objects. Our Protestant sisters and brothers tend to favor the cross without the corpus as a reminder that "He is risen; he is not here." Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians favor the image of the crucifix, the Crucified One, perhaps to say "he is still here, sharing the pain of the world," the passion endured by so many. What was originally a sign of torture, punishment, and death -- like our electric chair, gas chamber. noose, or lethal injection -- is now a symbol of abundant life. It's no wonder that, when early Christians first began to honor the cross because of its association with Jesus, St Paul called it an "stumbling block" to the Jews, and "foolishness" to the Greeks and Romans. And so today (September 14) we celebrate the Feast of Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It is still a sign of pain, but the pain it represents is the price of victory and salvation: Jesus broke through death to life; against the odds, good prevails.

God deals with us in love, especially in times of difficulty and trouble. The Synod on Synodality called us to remember that "The whole Christian community is called to recognize in those made poor the face and flesh of Christ, who, though He was rich, became poor for us so that we might become rich through His poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). The preferential option for the poor is implicit in Christological faith. The direct knowledge of the suffering Christ (cf. EG 198) possessed by those who are poor makes them heralds of salvation received as a gift and witnesses to the joy of the Gospel" (Final Report, #19). God is not the source of our troubles. The Holy Cross teaches us that God is with us in our pain. God is with us even in death. The triumph of Jesus' Cross becomes the triumph of our crosses, too.

Let us pray for faith that believes in the Triumph of the Cross.