THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS
You may wonder why we’re celebrating this feast – the Exaltation of the Holy Cross – on a Sunday in the middle of September. Since it falls on a Sunday only every so many years – the last time was in 2014 – you may have forgotten that this is an ancient feast day, marking the discovery of the True Cross by St. Helena and the dedication of the basilica that Emperor Constantine, her son, built in Jerusalem over the spot of our Lord’s crucifixion. All of this happened back in the 4th century AD. This feast day occurs every September 14th and is followed on the 15th by the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows; we will celebrate that at the daily Masses tomorrow.
Historically then, this feast commemorates some important events in the Church in the early 4th century. The readings for today’s mass, however, invite us into more than just a remembrance of an event in history. They present for our reflection the paradox of the cross of Christ as our victory over sin and death. As we hear in today’s second reading, Jesus emptied himself of his divinity to take on humanity but he was ultimately glorified through his death on the cross. By our faith in him, we are lifted up into his glory. In our gospel reading today we hear a portion of Jesus’ nighttime encounter with Nicodemus. It is clear from Jesus’ conversation with this esteemed teacher of the Law that Nicodemus doesn’t understand Jesus’ mission. This can be seen by his confusion, revealed earlier in this chapter, about being “born again.” After explaining what it means to be born of the Spirit, Jesus next describes the Son of Man – Jesus’ preferred term of self-address – as both descending and being lifted up. After this descent, Jesus would “be lifted up.” While this passage does not explicitly mention the cross, this is clearly what is meant by “being lifted up.” Given the scandal of this torturous death reserved for the most despicable of criminals, we begin to see the paradox of the “exaltation” of the cross.
Our first reading from Numbers today provides important context for understanding Jesus’ words. Today’s first reading relates that serpents were sent to the people of Israel in their desert journey from Egypt to Canaan as a consequence of their ingratitude to God. According to the text, many died as a result of these serpent bites. God’s liberation came through the command to Moses to affix a bronze image of a serpent to a pole and whoever would look up upon the image would be saved. By itself, this is a strange story. To make an image of a snake and offer it up for the people to look upon for healing seems like it might be a form of idolatry. The specific imagery here is important, however. Pay attention to the snake that is mounted on a pole, and the condition for being saved from its poison is to look at it. First, there is the snake itself. The Judeo-Christian understanding of the snake in the Garden of Eden is that it is the devil, and therefore the offspring of the serpent is sin.
Second, this image of sin is affixed to a pole, nailed to it – crucified, if you will. Those who have been “poisoned” by the bite of sin are doomed to perish, unless they look upon the Crucified and are healed. We can easily see how this relates to Jesus. According to St. Paul, Jesus became sin on the cross. We read in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” The way to healing in Numbers is to look at the serpent lifted up. In the Gospel, we hear that the Son of Man is lifted up so that we who have been poisoned by sin might have eternal life.
We celebrate the exaltation of the cross because it is the fulfillment of Jesus’ rescue mission to save humanity. God’s infinite love is made manifest in becoming one of us, in humiliating his divinity to become one with our humanity. The Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, becomes fully one of us. Humankind is so important that God would become one of us to save us from slavery. This term “slavery” also bears further reflection. We hear St. Paul say in today’s second reading that Christ became a “slave,” rather than simply saying he became a human being. This is because of Paul’s recognition that all human beings are slaves to sin. We need to be rescued. The Incarnation is the beginning of that rescue mission. God chooses to descend, is lifted up on the cross, and then finally will ascend once again whence he came. This ascent as the end of his mission occurs at his Resurrection. The mission plan begins with the descent but cannot proceed to the return in glory without going through the cross. St. Paul teaches that, because of what Christ chooses to do in his self-emptying, his Father exalts him. Then St. Paul concludes by saying that participation in Christ’s exaltation comes about only by going the way he has gone. We exalt the cross as the way in which Christ’s exaltation occurs and, by extension, our own exaltation in him.
The very beginning of our submission is revealed in the last few verses of the Gospel passage that focus on the invitation to believe. The Son of Man is lifted up so that those who believe may have eternal life. The price of our own exaltation is our belief that Jesus being lifted up is the path to eternal life. A small price to pay and certainly a reason for exaltation. Unfortunately, even though God in his love emptied himself and was lifted up on the cross for us so that we could be exalted with him, we so often persist in our rebellion and thus remain in our slavery. We become victims of our circumstances and, like the Israelites in the desert, fail to take responsibility for our own misery. We forget the works of the Lord. On this Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, we should reflect on the paradox of how the horrific event of the cross is not a tragedy but the doorway to the happy ending of God’s story. We should never forget the works of the Lord; we believe in him that we might have eternal life.