Homily for 14 September, Holy Cross Day

“The Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Last week we were given that warning from Christ that as his followers we all have to bear our crosses, and this week we are asked to contemplate the glory of Christ and his Cross. On Good Friday we solemnly unveil a Cross, then we kneel to kiss the feet of Christ on that Cross – but we do not do so in a spirit of exaltation but of sadness and sorrow. But as the Cross is the source of salvation, the source of our hope, we can and should also rejoice in that glory that is the Cross. This is the message of our feast today.

This is a message which would not have made sense to many of the first people to hear the message of the Gospel. For them the Cross was the ultimate symbol of suffering, of pain, of defeat – a way that the Roman Empire tortured its enemies to death to show them and everybody around that they were the final power, that no possible challenge could be made against them.

But God had other ideas. That symbol of power and oppression would, through the work of Christ, become a symbol of true power, the power of love, the power of God, the power of his mercy.

This is why the Cross has always been the central emblem of Christianity – because on it Christ transforms everything about us, our relationship with God, and therefore our relationship with each other. The Carthusians take as their motto the line Stat Crux dum Volvitur Orbis – the Cross stands as the world turns. They recognise that the Cross is the very centre of human life – because the Cross is the place where Christ opens heaven for us, the Cross is the place where God showed his love and mercy for us all.

So it is right that we exalt the Cross – we raise it high as a focal point in our churches, we celebrate Mass facing towards it – because it is the sign of Christ’s victory. The Romans thought that they had got rid of him by crucifying him; they thought that this was the end of the message…but those few days later he returned more glorious than ever. The whole was turned, turned upside down, by what Christ did on that Cross.

But the Cross has to be more than just a symbol for us to look at, it has to be something which enters into our hearts. We have to learn the fulness of the message of the Cross. The meaning really is something which can transform us. The Cross can stand in our hearts as we are turned around it, turned so that we are truly facing God.

S. Paul had learnt the true meaning of the Cross, and that was his message as he wrote to those Philippians. The Cross was something which Christ embraced – even though he was in the form of God, he didn’t seek to seize that equality with God. He looked to us, and he showed us the path of the Cross, the path to true glory. He laid aside all of that glory which he had had since he began the universe. He showed us a perfect and complete humility, in his coming to earth, and above all in his death on the Cross, he never thought about himself for a single moment. Even though he is the one that all humans should never pause from serving – he came to serve us, and to serve us in the most extreme way possible, by dying for us. By accepting that Cross. By allowing himself to be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

This is the work of Christ on the Cross. Not a work done for himself, a work done for us. Before the Cross we were separated from God by our sins, by our rejection of him; after the Cross we are given that chance to leave behind our perishing existence and receive eternal life.

If this was all that the Cross meant – if Christ gave himself on the Cross, lost himself on the Cross, so that we could gain eternal life – then we would have a sense of deep thankfulness for his work…but that is not all that the Cross meant. Christ laid aside his glory, Christ allowed himself to be crucified, but that was just the beginning – the Father took that death, took that willing sacrifice, and raised him on third day…’so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.’

The Cross was not the end for Christ, through the work of God it has been turned into that sign of triumph. The Cross is rightly the centre of our lives as Christians, but we all have to learn that central message – the Cross is where Christ showed that perfect humility, that complete desire to live and to die for others. If we learn that message, if we make it the centre of our lives, then we too will gain glory.

That is the message which generations of Saints have learnt – they made the Cross the centre of their lives, they exalted that great work of Christ on the Cross, and now they have the glory which comes from it.

At the centre of S. Peter’s Square stands an obelisk – originally raised as a moment to the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius. It was probably one of the last things which S. Peter saw as he was crucified there in Rome. Now, it is topped by a Cross and carries a new inscription:

Ecce Crux Domini, fugite partes adversæ. Vicit Leo de tribu Juda.

Behold, the Cross of the Lord. Take flight hostile ranks, the Lion of Judah, has conquered.

That is the transformation which the Cross brings. Let us all exalt that Cross in our minds and in our hearts, and by learning the message of the Cross, may we all be given our share of that glory which Christ gained.