24th Week of Ordinary Time C – Sunday – Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Our Lord can deliver us from illness, from oppressors, from tyrants and dictators, and from all earthly threats. Yet, if in the end we were still to succumb to our final enemy—death itself—what good would all those other miracles be? The greatest of all miracles, then, is Christ’s victory over death through the cross.

Therefore, on this feast we must fix our gaze on the cross. For it is not merely about a piece of wood, but about the Person who was nailed to it: Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity—God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, consubstantial with the Father, the Creator of all things. When we look upon Jesus crucified, we are looking at God Himself who brought all creation into being.

Here a little catechesis helps us understand. Jesus is one divine Person, the Son of God, who possesses two natures: divine and human. This mystery has often caused confusion and even heresies. For example, the heresy of Docetism claimed that since Jesus was God, His humanity was only an appearance, like a costume, and that He did not really suffer or feel human emotions. But this is false. Jesus truly took on a human nature. As Saint Paul tells us in today’s second reading from the Letter to the Philippians, though He was God, “He did not deem equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied Himself and took the form of a slave.” He was born, raised, experienced hunger, joy, pain, and suffering—yet hidden within that humanity was the eternal God.

This true man, Jesus, suffered excruciating pain on the cross to liberate us from sin and to open heaven to us. From the beginning of time, God had this plan in His eternal wisdom, and we see it prefigured in the Old Testament: the tree of life in Eden, the wood of Noah’s ark that saved humanity, the staff of Moses through which God worked wonders in Egypt, and in today’s first reading, the bronze serpent lifted on a pole so that all who looked upon it might be healed. As Saint Augustine explains, “The serpent caused death, but the image of a serpent became the sign of salvation. So too, death came through man, and through a man death was destroyed.”

All of this leads us to the humility of Christ. He, though God, humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death—even death on a cross. As Saint Paul of the Cross reminds us, “The cross is the way to Paradise, but only if we embrace it with love.” And Saint Francis de Sales tells us: “Look often upon the crucifix, and there you will learn what it means to love, to be humble, and to obey.” These virtues are essential for our journey, both for our salvation and for helping others to find their way to God.

My brothers and sisters, may we today fix our eyes on the Cross of Christ, the sign of victory, humility, and love, and may it strengthen us to embrace God’s will with joy.

And may Almighty God bless you: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.