Num 21:4b-9; Ps. 78: 1bc-2, 34-38; Phil. 2:6-11; Jn.3:13-17
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross is Jesus on the cross lifted up to open the gates of heaven to eternal life. The Holy Cross is exalted as the greatest sign of God’s love. There are four signs of hope for humanity, God the lover, God’s gift of creation, God’s gift of his son Jesus, and God’s gift of eternal life.
God the lover for God is love. Love is transcendent and unifying. God is unified in the Holy Trinity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Love is eternal transcending our mortal life and uniting us to our creator. Love gives life to the dead and brings about new creation.
God’s gift of creation is a sign of God’s love for humanity. Created in God’s image we can transcend our mortal being with the gift of his grace to be united to God as body, soul, and spirit. The body serves God to be his temple that we may be united to him. The soul is the image of God in its likeness as intellect, will, and emotions. We are to put on the mind of God in our minds, unite our will to his will, and with filled with emotions to experience God’s love. God’s gift of creation is all creation from the insect on the group to the eagle in sky, from the thorn bush in the desert to the flowers and crops in the field are a gift with a purpose.
God’s gift of his son Jesus is our hope in the Exaltation of the Cross, lifted up to offer atonement for our sins. When the people suffered for their sin in the desert God’s “punishment” was not an act of vengeance but an act of mercy to turn a hardened heart back to him. Suffering brings us back to God, to the truth of our mortality and our need for a God who is love. It was a sign of the coming of Jesus who also would be lifted up that we who look up to the Exaltation of the Cross will live as we bend our knees and we proclaim, “Jesus Christ is Lord”. We are to always be aware of the power of the name of Jesus to bring us healing and salvation.
God’s gift of eternal life is our hope that cannot be denied by the Exaltation of the Cross. God is faithful to his promises. There is not a moment in our life that God is not at work in us. We often fail to recognize the grace at work and forget all that we have received from him. We tend to be like a bottomless pit asking “what have you done for me lately” blinded by our own indulgence and failing to recognize how he has already freed us from slavery in order to live a Godly life. The gift of eternal life is our greatest treasure, and our time is a window to prepare ourselves to be received in heaven.
There is a false impression that God sends “punishment” to appease his anger and satisfy his wrath. This fails to understand God acts out of love and love requires action not to “condemn the world but that the world might be saved” through Jesus. God told Moses “Whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived”. By their sin they suffered the bite of the serpent and died as we suffer the bite of our sins and die. Our salvation is to look up to the cross of Jesus and live.
God’s action is his mercy to bring healing to the suffering of his heart for the sins of his people and call his people back to his love. This is made clear through Jesus and his sacred heart who reveals his wounds on the cross in atonement for our sins. It is our time now to respond to his suffering heart with the one gift he desires, a heart of love, love of God and love of neighbor in adoration, “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your Cross you have redeemed the world.” Amen.
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