unforgettable

Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 78 do not forget the works of the Lord; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17


Today in the Church we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Triumph of the Cross.

"So must the Son of man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." John 3:13-17

"Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found in human appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." Philippians 2:6-11


"I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me." Galatians 2:19


"We are celebrating the Feast of the Cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light. As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above...The cross is something wonderfully great and honorable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation...The cross is honorable because it i the sign of God's suffering and the trophy of victory...in it the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world. The cross is called Christ's glory' it is saluted as his triumph." St. Andrew of Crete

How many people have in their homes crosses plastered all over their walls? How many have crosses used as decorative art work rather than a place of veneration and homage?

What have we done? How far have we fallen? Rather than exalting the cross as a means of redemption, it has now become a pretty piece that looks good on that bare wall. The worst thing imaginable is to hear someone introduce their "decorative cross wall."

It makes my spine itch, and my heart saddened.

The cross has become just another object for sale.


How we forget? How we have forgotten?

The cross before it was decorative was an instrument of destruction, and instrument of torture, an instrument of pain, an instrument of death. Yet, it was the Person of Christ in his body that transforms that instrument of destruction and death into a place of peace, forgiveness, and life itself. The ugliness of the cross becomes beauty in Christ.

But without the body of Christ the cross remains only a piece of art, only a decorative remembrance of what was once a bare wall.

Exalt the cross...see it as a triumphant and victorious work of redemption...see it as beauty not just art.
Pope John Paul II proclaimed that in the end we are saved by beauty...The Exaltation of the Cross should remind us of that beautiful reality upon whose life we now live.

meditation song on this feast: at the cross
another meditation song: sweetly broken