Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. One might wonder why it is that we’re celebrating the Cross in September when Good Friday tends to be on the other side of the calendar year. The reason is that the feast commemorates a specific event.
For Western Christians this feast commemorates the day in 629 AD when the relics of the true cross were again venerated in Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The relics had been stolen in 614 by the leader of the Sassanid Empire, Khosrau II. That year, Jerusalem was sacked by the Persians, the Christian shrines were defaced, and treasures were hauled off to Ninevah in modern day Iraq. Heraclius, the Roman Emperor, had lost to the Persians several times, which had resulted in the current situation, but in 622 he mounted a counterattack against the Sassanids and won so decidedly that Khosrau was deposed, killed by his own son who then sued for peace with the Romans.
So it was that on September 14, 629, Heraclius entered into Jerusalem bringing back with him the relics of the true cross.
Now, according to the Western tradition, the Emperor bore the silver case which held the relics on his own shoulder in order to demonstrate that Jesus was the “King of Kings.” However, upon reaching the threshold of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Heraclius was suddenly stopped in his tracks and simply could not move forward. The Patriarch Archbishop of Jerusalem Zachary pointed out to the Emperor that his demeanor did not match that of our Lord’s when He bore the cross. Heraclius then removed his purple cloak and his crown and proceeded barefoot into the shrine. The relics were displayed, and many were healed that day.
For Eastern Christians, this is also a big feast, but they tend to associated it with St. Helena finding the relics of the true cross, the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and a vision by St. Cyril of Jerusaelm in 351.
Whatever the case, the feast should bring to our minds how strange it is that we associate the cross and the crucifix with Christianity. I mean how odd is it that we use a symbol of horrific torture as our calling card?
Now, Jesus certainly spoke to his followers about having to take up their own cross, and we have textual evidence that in early Christianity things and people were blessed with the “sign of the cross.” But the oldest image of Jesus on the cross actually comes from an anti-Catholic Roman graffito from the 2nd century. In the image seen here, which is a drawing based on the graffito, Romans were clearly making fun of Christians by drawing a cross and a man with the head of a donkey on it and the Greek words “Alexamenos worships God.” Alexamenos was, presumably, a Christian. But is it not interesting that by the 100’s Roman pagans knew that our God was crucified and that we would worship him on a cross? Isn’t it ridiculous that we worship our God with an image of what seems to be a complete and utter defeat. In truth, the oldest Christian depiciton of the crucifix that we have doesn't appear until the 400's on the door of Santa Sabina in Rome. So why do we hold this image of the cross and crucifix so dear?
Certainly, it is the sign of our God's great love for us, the icon of how deeply he desires relationship with us. It represents the leangths he will go to in order to save us from ourselves. The fact that it wasn't just another prophet killed by the Romans, but that Jesus chose to allow that ignominious death that makes the cross so compelling.
And we cannot forget that it was our Jesus Himself who chose the "carrying of a cross" as the metaphor for faithful discipleship. His point was not about embracing random suffering, but that it represents the choice to suffer for the sake of the other, for the sake of those you love, for the sake of friends and family. "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (Jn. 15:13)
Today, with the Triumph of the Cross, we celebrate in a way the idea that when we sacrifice for our families, for our friends, for our community, especially when we sacrifice for strangers we are more like Jesus than at any other time. Today, then, we should bring to mind the many sacrifices made for us and the sacrifices we ask of others for our sake. Today thank the Lord for his own sacrifice and for the sacrifices of the missionaries, clergy, lay religious and evangelists, who are responsible for bringing the Gospel to our local church, for our parents, grandparents, for the sacrifices of our police officers, our firefighters, our service men and women, our teachers, everyone who gives of themselves for the sake of others.
Today is a day by which we can and ought to measure all things by the contradictory image of Christ Crucified.
Let me end with a few lovely words from a sermon by St. John Henry Newman titled “The Cross of Christ, the Measure of The World.”
It is the death of the Eternal Word of God made flesh, which is our great lesson how to think and how to speak of this world. His Cross has put its due value upon every thing which we see, upon all fortunes, all advantages, all ranks, all dignities, all pleasures; upon the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It has set a price upon the excitements, the rivalries, the hopes, the fears, the desires, the efforts, the triumphs of mortal man. It has given a meaning to the various, shifting course, the trials, the temptations, the sufferings, of his earthly state. It has brought together and made consistent all that seemed discordant and aimless. It has taught us how to live, how to use this world, what to expect, what to desire, what to hope. It is the tone into which all the strains of this world’s music are ultimately to be resolved.
Look around, and see what the world presents of high and low. Go to the court of princes. See the treasure and skill of all nations brought together to honour a child of man. Observe the prostration of the many before the few. Consider the form and ceremonial, the pomp, the state, the circumstance; and the vainglory. Do you wish to know the worth of it all? look at the Cross of Christ.
Go to the political world: see nation jealous of nation, trade rivalling trade, armies and fleets matched against each other. Survey the various ranks of the community, its parties and their contests, the strivings of the ambitious, the intrigues of the crafty. What is the end of all this turmoil? the grave. What is the measure? the Cross.
Go, again, to the world of intellect and science: consider the wonderful discoveries which the human mind is making, the variety of arts to which its discoveries give rise, the all but miracles by which it shows its power; and next, the pride and confidence of reason, and the absorbing devotion of thought to transitory objects, which is the consequence. Would you form a right judgment of all this? look at the Cross.
Again: look at misery, look at poverty and destitution, look at oppression and captivity; go where food is scanty, and lodging unhealthy. Consider pain and suffering, diseases long or violent, all that is frightful and revolting. Would you know how to rate all these? gaze upon the Cross.
Thus in the Cross, and Him who hung upon it, all things meet; all things subserve it, all things need it. It is their centre and their interpretation. For He was lifted up upon it, that He might draw all men and all things unto Him.
Finally, here is a link to a virtual tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
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