"How radiant is that precious cross which brought us our salvation. In the cross we are victorious, through the cross we shall reign, by the cross all evil is destroyed, alleluia."
- Antiphon 3 of Lauds for the Exaltation of the Cross
Today the Sundays of Ordinary Time are interrupted, as is the series "A Look at the Mass," in order to celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the instrument of our salvation!
When we think of the Cross, sorrow often enters our hearts, since it was on account of our sins that the Lord bore the weight of the Cross, but the feeling the Church wishes us to have for this precious item is the exact opposite. She calls us to rejoice in the Cross, for through it was wrought the redemption of the world!
On Good Friday we encountered the Cross, but on that day we were so focused on the Passion and Death of Jesus that we were not able to pay it the full homage it deserved. Therefore, the Church has given us another day, well removed from Lent, in order that we may give it fitting homage and thanks. The date was chosen in accordance with the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, but we may also see a sublime message within this date. It is celebrated within Ordinary Time, the Season of the Church, as I, and others, have often called it; the Cross is an integral part of the Christian life. A few Sundays ago, the Gospel for the Mass was the one in which our Lord said, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me (Matthew 16:24)." However, as this Feast shows, the Cross is not a sorrow but a joy.
St. Andrew of Crete says, in today's Office of Readings:
"The Cross is something wonderfully great and honorable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation - very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honorable because it is both the sign of God's suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world."
Jesus Christ's death is the cause of our salvation, but the Cross is itself also part of that cause. In Thomistic philosophy, efficient causes have a principal agent, Who intends the cause produced, and an instrumental agent, which is the item directed by the principal agent, to cause the effect. Thus, with our Redemption, we see that Christ is the principal agent, but the Cross is the means by which He accomplishes the salvation of the whole world. Therefore we sing, "We must glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ant. 3, Evening Prayer 1 for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross)." When we adore the Cross, we bend our knee before it, just like the tabernacle, for it may contain a particle of our Lord's Precious Blood, but also because of its necessity for our salvation.
Our love for the Cross also extends to our personal crosses, for it is through them that we are able to share in the life of Christ. When we unite our sufferings - our crosses - to the Cross of Christ and to His sufferings, our suffering becomes redemptive. It purifies us of our sins and merits us unto eternal life. Thus, we may say, "through the Cross we are victorious."
Within the establishment of this glorious feastday, one cannot hesitate to overlook the story of Constantine's conversion. Leading a Roman army in a losing battle at the foot of the Alps, the sign of the Cross suddenly appeared in the sky, surrounded by the words In hoc vince, meaning, "In this sign thou shalt conquer." From this point Rome was conquered for Christ! Even though, throughout the almost two millennia, rulers would try to crush the Church and Christianity, and return to paganism, or establish themselves as the supreme head, Christ would always remain the head of this earthly city, in which the blood of the Princes of the Apostles, and so many martyrs were shed. Even today, walking the streets of a Rome plunged into secularism, it is impossible not to be reminded that Christ is the conqueror, for all of the churches throughout the city proclaim Him so.
But we must not fall into the idea that Christ is an earthly conqueror, which the Jewish leaders at the time of Christ were so insistent upon. No! Jesus Christ is the Conqueror of Sin and Death! In the Cross is our hope, for by the Cross we are now able to regain Paradise, which was closed to us by Adam's sin. Adam set us a penalty, but Christ brought us a relief. As the hymn Crux Fidelis proclaims:
"Faithful Cross the Saints rely on,
Noble tree beyond compare!
Never was there such a scion,
Never leaf or flower so rare.
Sweet the timber, sweet the iron,
Sweet the burden that they bear!"
The saints rely upon the Cross, because through suffering they, and us, are made saints. As metal is purified when it endures the fire, so we are purified through the fires of our suffering. Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29)." The Cross is the burden that we must bear, willingly, as Christ did, but it is a joy to bear the Cross because of what it does for us. It allows us to suffer in joy, for through it we are given rest even in this life.
Within all of this we see the profound mixture of sorrow and joy that the Cross brings. Yes, there is a certain sorrow in bearing the Cross, for suffering by nature is sorrowful. However, once we see the Cross as what it truly is, namely the Throne from which our King and Conqueror triumphed over all the powers of Hell, then it becomes for us our joy here on earth!
Allow me to close with a legend of the origins of the Cross, which comes from the Aurea Legenda of Jacobus de Voragine of the Middle Ages. My only disclaimer is that this is a legend; it does not have to be believed:
It is said that as Adam felt his death approaching, the ultimate penalty for his sin in the Garden of Eden, he entreated his son, Seth, to go to the Garden of Eden and obtain from the angel set to guard it a remedy, which had been promised in the Protoevangelium, or the promise that the serpent's head would be crushed by the offspring of Eve.
Seth returned to the home, from which mankind has its origins, and begged the angel for the remedy to heal his father. The angel responded by giving Seth three seeds from the Tree of Life and instructions to plant them. "When the tree bears fruit, your father shall live," the angel told Seth.
Seth hurried back to his father and gave him the seeds. However, Adam, with an apparently deep understanding of what the angel's instructions meant, submitted himself to his just penalty and died. Nevertheless, Seth carried out the angel's instructions and planted the seeds with his father. As the seeds became a sapling tree, they absorbed the blood of Adam into itself. Nevertheless, Seth and his descendents died without ever seeing Adam live again.
When God sent the Flood to cleanse mankind, the tree was not forgotten, but was taken by Noah onto the Ark along with the skull of Adam, which was beneath it. After the Flood, these two items were finally separated. Noah buried the patriarch of all mankind on Mount Calvary, and replanted the tree on Mount Horeb.
The burning bush, in which Moses spoke to the Lord, was indeed this tree, and it was from this tree that he received the Rod, which he would use to bring water from the rock during the Israelites' wanderings in the desert. However, because he was not able to enter the Promised Land, he buried his rod in Moab before dying.
The story of the angel's promise was not lost, however, but was passed down from generation to generation. After being crowned king, David went and searched for this tree, and finally found it in Moab bringing it to Jerusalem. Wishing to increase the glory of the Temple, Solomon ordered his workers to use the tree as one of the columns, but no matter how they cut it, it was always the wrong length, for that Temple was not meant to be the temple it would reside in.
Disgusted by this inefficiency of the tree, they instead used the wood for a bridge to connect Jerusalem with the surrounding hills. Then, when the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, she was miraculously prevented from placing her feet upon the bridge. She instead had to go through the water to enter Jerusalem. This renewed Solomon's interest in the wood, and he ordered his men to wrap it in gold and place it above the entrance to the Temple.
The vices of Solomon only grew within his descendents though, one of which stole the gold and buried the wood to conceal his crime. Nevertheless, the spot where the tree was buried, burst forth in a spring, which became the pool of Bethesda, containing the power to heal.
One day, a log floated to the surface of the pool, and unsure what to do with it, it ended up being cut and turned into a tree of torture by the Romans - a cross. This cross, however, was the one carried by our Lord to Calvary, and when plunged into the ground, it hit the ancient skull of Adam, and the Precious Blood of our Lord flowed upon the Cross and into the ground, mixing with the remnant of Adam.
Never did a tree bear such magnificent fruit as this tree! Through its fruit, Adam did not return to earthly life, but was able to live the heavenly life!
And so it will be for all of us, if but bear and venerate the Cross in this life!
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