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September 15, 2014Before or after our liturgies, I find most beautiful and most sacred the simple gesture of a mom teaching her son or daughter to make the sign of the cross from the water of our baptismal font. The sign of the cross is a simple and most significant prayer for us as the disciples of Jesus. Even though it is far beyond a child's capacity to understand, the sign of the cross represents the power of God and the gift of eternal life. This simple sign reflects the mystery of God's unending love in the life of this beautiful child.
Equally it is profoundly moving for me at the beginning of the baptismal rite to welcome the child about to be baptized into the Christian community. I say: "In its name I claim you for Christ our Savior by the sign of the cross. I trace the sign of the cross on your forehead and invite your parents and godparents to do the same." And so, the child to be baptized is five times blesses by the sign of the cross, this most central symbol of our Catholic faith.
Today's Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross embodies a great mystery. Like the people of Israel in the first reading, we are called to a long journey to the Promised Land of Heaven. Like them, too can lose patience and fall into sin. Like them, our only hope for salvation is to cling to God's unending mercy and love.
The Gospel for this feast reminds us of the meaning of this great mystery: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son we that might be saved. As said in the children's book THE LITTLE PRINCE: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye." Our parish message this Sunday and in the upcoming Sundays is YES "it is only with the heat that one can see rightly". The conversion we seek as the disciples of Jesus is a conversion of our hearts.
That conversion happens in our prayer over the mystery of the cross -- this sign of God -- s self-giving love for us. The mystery of God?s emptying and self-giving love for us is seen in the mystery of the cross.
The conversion of the heart that we seek is to keep the eyes of our hearts fixed on something that gives us life. It is no longer the serpent, as for the Jews, who gives life and saves us from death, but the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. With the eyes of faith we do not see the cross only as an instrument of torture, but a symbol of God's self-giving love.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says: "In my Father's house there are many mansions and I am going to prepare a place for you". Jesus' promise of a home for us means a communion of life with Him. This communion of life with Jesus has begun to be realized from his pierced side on the cross. Indeed, this is a great mystery for us, a sign of hope and a sign of exaltation.
St Paul expressed this great mystery in the second Scripture reading: "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; he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him".
The tire hits the road for us in our discipleship of Jesus is when we experience the cross in our lives , the cross of illness, the cross of death, the cross of the brokenness of our spirit, of loneliness, of depression, not experiencing the love we seek and we need.
Jesus emptied himself and accepted and embraced the cross out of love for us. How does that work for us? Do we accept and embrace the crosses of our lives? In fact, embracing the cross leads us to deeper life in Christ and the mystery of God's love.
There was a time in my life when I was a big-time runner. I use to run in marathons and running was part of my daily routine. On many Saturdays, I would run in 10K races. It was physically and spiritually energizing. In time, running took a toll on my knees. To the point, I could no longer run and in fact needed knee replacements in both knees. Indeed this was a cross to bear. Did I accept and embrace this weakness and use it as an opportunity to unite myself more deeply with the cross of Christ?
I would be overly pious if I said this was beautiful and I embraced this cross in life. The truth is most of us do not choose the crosses of life that come our way. It takes a long to process suffering. However we are not to stop living when crosses become part of our life experience. And certainly, there are far worse life experiences than knee replacements. But for me and for all of us, I need to play the cards that are dealt. The truth of our lives is Jesus accompanies us in the pain and the losses of our lives. The truth is Jesus promises the fullness of life. The sufferings we experience, the losses and struggles we endure do lead us to a deeper life in Christ. Through them we become more aware of who we are, people who stand in need of God?s healing grace. We carry within us the dying and rising of Jesus.
St Paul says: "Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and distress for Christ: for when I am weak, then I am strong". It is through the experience of the cross of life that our discipleship of the Lord Jesus becomes very genuine. At some point in the life of the young child whom mom is teaching to make the sign of the cross from our baptismal font, at some point the cross is going to become real in this person's life, I pray that this person will be able to see with the eyes of a faith-filled heart to be able to embrace this cross and so become more trusting in God's unending love.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Indeed, Jesus was exalted as He hung upon the cross -- exalted because of His self-giving love that led to His glorification by His heavenly Father. We too are exalted when we join our cross with the cross of Jesus who leads us to a deeper sharing in God's unending love for us.
