Homily (2) The
Exaltation of the Holy Cross Fr. Michael U. Udoekpo
Numbers 21:4b-9; Ps
78:1bc-2, 34-38; Phil 2:6-11 and John 3:13-17
Christ's Cross: A Symbol of Hope and Salvation
Today’s feast reminds us
what we hear in the Passion Week, especially in the Gospel of John, chapters
18-19 that the death of Christ on the cross was not a defeat, but victory.
Christ’s Cross is a symbol of hope and freedom for all. The early Christians
embraced this. Its public veneration spread from East to West, especially during
the time of Constantine, the Roman emperor. We are told, Helen, the Emperor’s
mother went to Jerusalem, discovered, and brought the cross of Christ to Rome,
sparing it from the enemies’ desecration.
This Cross is Sacred,
powerful, and salvific. It is the center
of our Christian faith. We make the sign of this cross at worships, at baptism
and when we receive various other sacraments in the Church. We began every
(this) Mass with the sign of the Cross. Soccer and Football players, in fact
sport men and women, even none practicing Christians sign themselves with the
cross for success and protection, at the beginning and at the end of their
competitions. Christ’s journey to the cross teaches us, everyone, especially,
through the Bible readings of today some fundamentals of our faith: courage, endurance,
hope, patience, humility and appreciation of all that the Lord has done for us
in the past.
Psalm 78 drums this
home, “do not forget the works of the Lord!” What works of the Lord is the psalmist
refereeing to? I believe the “cross of the exodus,”’ the freedom from the tyranny
of Pharaoh; alleviation from their pains, feeding them when they were thirsty
and hungry in the desert and liberating them from various exiles during the
course of Israel’s relationship with God.
But how easy it is to
forget the goodness of the Lord, to murmur, to complain as was the case in
today’s first reading, the Book of Numbers. The same people that God has once
assisted said to Moses, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the
desert, where there is no food or water?” God sent a snake to challenge them. But
when they finally repent God instructed Moses to put up a fashioned bronze
serpent so that the afflicted or those once bitten, could be saved by looking up to the serpent on the tree. The bronze snake no doubt is a symbol of life and wisdom. It is a symbol
of Christ who did not count equality with God, but humbled himself on the tree of the cross,
to save us. His humility, courage and endurance exalted him (Phil 2:6-11). And
his volitional journey to the cross raised us and our loved ones from the death.
Many of us have also
watched the Passion of Christ reenacted in movies. Some of those scenes are
very brutal. The weight of the cross, the blood, the nails, the violent
soldiers, the dusty road, those who spitted on cross or those who shouted
Crucify him, Crucify him! The thorns and crowns! All these reminds us that
there are different forms of crosses in our lives. It could be illness,
poverty, and threats of terrorism, violence, war, tiredness, and pains on the
knees, eyes, legs, heart problems, kidney, high blood pressure, or sugar in our
blood. Others could be anger, bad habits, lack of team spirit, inability to
live or work with one another; lack of tolerance. What about gossips and lack
of self-control? You name them!
All these can lead us
to whine, murmur, and complain like the Israelites, in the desert. But the good
news is that these bitter experiences can also be handled with faith and trust
in the goodness of the Lord. We can always look back and trust in his work,
knowing that the Lord has the experience of dealing with these types problems,
in the past. It requires our patience,
courage, and endurance to embrace the cross of Christ. It also takes humility to
raise our eyes, and look on to that cross, hanging above our pains, and
sorrows. Christ’s cross is also superior to our failures, setbacks and other
forms of sufferings.
This is the same conversation
that Christ is having with Nicodemus in today’s Gospel (John 3:13-17). The Lord
is good, merciful and loving at all times. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the desert for those bitten, and afflicted to be saved, so must the son of
man be lifted up, so that each of us who
look upon him in our sufferings and illnesses, in our bitterness, in our
sorrows, in our disappointments, loneliness and uncertainties may be saved. Christ's Cross is a symbol of hope and salvation for all.
