Mount Calvary is the mount of lovers. All love that does not take its origin from the Savior’s passion is foolish and perilous. Unhappy is love without the Savior’s death. Love and death are so mingled in the Savior’s passion that we cannot have one in our hearts without the other. Upon Calvary, we cannot have life without love, or love without the Redeemer’s death.
– St Francis de Sales
Exaltation of the Holy Cross – Feast: 14th September
Today’s feast is written by Fr Nicholas Schofield in Saints of the Roman Calendar.
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross commemorates the rescue of the relic of the True Cross by Emperor Heraclius in 629 after it had been captured by the Persians; it also marks the original dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where relics of the Cross were kept, in 335. The Feast celebrates the Cross, the instrument of our salvation, and is in many ways an extension of Good Friday. The Cross is a great and powerful sign of God’s love for us – a love stronger than death – and also a daily reality in our lives: the only true path to holiness.
Collect Prayer
O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son
should undergo the Cross to save the human race,
grant, we pray,
that we, who have known his mystery on earth,
may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Latin
Deus, qui Unigenitum tuum crucem subire voluisti,
ut salvum faceret genus humanum,
præsta, quæsumus,
ut, cuius mysterium in terra cognovimus,
eius redemptionis præmia in cælo consequi mereamur.
Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Filium tuum,
qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti,
Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum.
Why did Jesus have to die?
Today’s reflection is written by Fr Stephen Wang in SYCAMORE: The Catholic Faith Explained
Westminster Cathedral is one of the largest churches in central London. As you enter the building you notice the darkness of the unfinished ceiling, and the altar in the distance. But dominating everything, hanging high above the altar, is a huge painted crucifix (pictured).
Here is the figure of Jesus, with his arms outstretched, nailed to a cross, his head bent to one side at the moment of his death. It’s a powerful symbol of how the death of Jesus is at the very heart of Christianity.
Christians believe that something has gone wrong with the world, and only God can put it right. Things are not the way they are meant to be. Suffering, loneliness, conflict, death. There is so much good in the world, but there is so much brokenness and confusion as well.
Christians believe that Jesus gave his life for us by dying on the Cross, and then rose from the dead on the third day, in the glory of the Resurrection. His death brings us peace with God, and the hope of eternal life. It brings healing. And it brings forgiveness for what the Bible calls sin, which is all the wrong we have done and all the harm we have caused. But why did he have to die?
The Son of God became human because he wanted to be with us. He wanted to enter into the deepest reality of human experience; to share not just our joy but also our loneliness, our suffering, our darkness; so that no one, anywhere, could ever say they had been abandoned by God.
He let himself be tortured and executed like a common criminal. It was a desire to come close to all those who suffer, and lead them out to a better place.
A few years ago there was a terrible crisis in Thailand when twelve boys and their football coach became trapped in an underground cave. The tunnels had been flooded by heavy rains and the exits were blocked. It was too dangerous and too time-consuming to dig down from the surface.
The only answer was for a team of divers to go into the tunnels themselves, at great risk to their own lives. They had to find the boys, sit with them in the cave, and then lead them out, one by one.
They brought light into the darkness of the cave – and food, and blankets, and oxygen, and a video link! But they could only do this by sharing the same risks and fears as the boys. In the same way, Jesus comes to be with us. He brings light into our darkness. This is one part of the Cross.
But even more, Jesus came to give his life for us. The greatest love someone can have is to give up their life for another. We have an amazing example of this here in England.
Alban was a soldier in a Roman city near London. He had no faith, but gave shelter to a Christian priest who was being hunted down by the Roman authorities. Alban was so moved by the prayers and example of the priest that he converted to Christianity.
When the authorities caught up with them, Alban helped the priest to escape. Then he disguised himself in the cloak the priest had left, and let himself be arrested in his place, giving the priest time to get away. And when they discovered that it was in fact Alban, they interrogated him and told him to renounce his Christian faith, but he refused.
So they executed him on the top of the hill outside the city. Alban sacrificed his life out of love: love for his neighbour, and love for God.
Imagine if you discovered that you were only alive because someone had given their life for you. Well this is the reality. Jesus offered his life on the Cross for each one of us, personally. He did this out of love – love for each one of us, for you, for me. He carried on his shoulders the weight of every human sin and the burden of every human suffering.
The Cross of Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. It undoes all the damage that has ever been done and sets us free. It was of infinite value because the one saying Yes was the Son of God. All we need to do is to unite our yes with his, and try to love him in return.
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