Triumph of the Cross

Today, 14 Sept., the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross. It is also known by the term the Exultation of the Cross. It gets that name because part of the celebration is commerating an event in the life of St. Helena when at aged 80 she went on a pilgramage to the Holy Land. She went to search for the True Cross. In 326 AD she found 3 crosses. She sought the advice of St. Macarius of Jerusalem. He told her to find a woman who was ill & touch all 3 crosses to her. The 1 that instantly cured her was declared the True Cross. St. Helena sent pieces of the Cross t Rome & to Constantinople. On the site of her discovery she built a church.

But, it celebrates much more than the mere finding of the Cross on which Jesus hung. The feast celebrates the victory that Jesus won on that Cross, the victory over sin & death that is there for anyone who is willing to make Jesus Lord of his or her life. The Cross is the means by which Satan was defeated. Satan's hold over us was broken. It celebrates in a special way what we celebrate at every Mass. Jesus sacrificed himself on the Cross in atonement for our sins. He paid the price that we deserve to pay. He poured out His Blood that we might have eternal life. The Cross is the sign by which each & every Christian proclaims his salvation. It is the true victory sign. It is how Jesus ascended to His throne as King of Kings & Lord of Lords.

2000 yrs ago the cross was a sign of shame. It was the means of punishment used by the Romans to punish criminals who were not Roman citizens. A criminal who was sentanced to death was hung on the cross naked. He was crucified in a public place where people could go by to see him. It served 2 purposes, to add to the criminal's shame & to serve as a warning to others not to commit a capital crime. It was a horrible, slow painful way to die. Yet, when Jesus chose to die on the Cross, he turned it away from a sign of shame to the sign of triumph it is for all Christians today.

Or as St Andrew of Crete put in in a discourse that is read by the Church in the Office of Readings:

"We are celebrating the feast of the cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light. As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above. So great and outstanding a possession is the cross that he who wins it has won a treasure. Rightly could I call this treasure the fairest of all fair things and the costliest, in fact as well as in name, for on it and through it and for its sake the riches of salvation that had been lost were restored to us.

Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.

Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honourable. 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 honourable 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.

The cross is called Christ’s glory; it is saluted as his his triumph. We recognise it as the cup he longed to drink and the climax of the sufferings he endured for our sake. As to the cross being Christ’s glory, listen to his words: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified, and God will glorify him at once. And again: Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world came to be. And once more: “Father, glorify your name”. Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it and will glorify it again”. Here he speaks of the glory that would accrue to him through the cross. And if you would understand that the cross is Christ’s triumph, hear what he himself also said: When I am lifted up, then I will draw all men to myself. Now you can see that the cross is Christ’s glory and triumph."