The Cross Immortalizing God’s Love!

Sunday, September 14, 2025

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Nm 21:4b-9; Phil 2:6-11; Jn 3:13-17

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross inspires a reflection on the Holy Cross as immortalizing God’s love.

The feast typically commemorates three historical events: the discovery of the True Cross in 326 AD by Emperor Constantine’s mother, St. Helena, its initial exaltation for public veneration in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335 AD, and the recovery of the Cross from the Persians in 628 AD.

Though we remember these historical events during the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the core of our celebration is not just the physical wood of the cross but rather the selfless love that Jesus proclaimed from it. The readings of the day help us in our reflection on Christ’s infinite love from the cross. 

The first reading describes the healing of the Israelites through the bronze serpent. When the Israelites proved ungrateful and rebellious in the wilderness, disregarding God’s miraculous acts to save them from Egyptian slavery, God punished them through serpents. However, when they repented for their sin, God commanded Moses to lift a bronze serpent on a pole so that anyone who looked upon it would be healed. While this is an Old Testament event, it has a significant connection with the New Testament, especially in the way it foreshadows the cross from which Christ brought humanity’s redemption. Hence, we realize that the Old Testament bronze serpent prefigured the cross of Christ, which brought healing from condemnation and judgement. Thus, we reflect on the cross as a symbol of Christ’s infinite love, and it gives us strength and healing whenever we turn to it in faith.

The second reading reflects on the cross from the viewpoint of Christ’s profound humility and obedience. Paul helps us understand Christ’s infinite love from his obedience to God’s will, which required that he renounce his divine status and empty himself in utter humility to embrace death – even death on a cross. It is because Christ humbled himself to die on the cross that God exalted him above all so that his sacrificial love calls for universal remembrance and celebration. While the cross helps our reflection on Christ’s self-giving love, we cannot overlook God’s solidaristic suffering with His Son for the redemption of the world. Thus, while the cross is the visible love of Christ, it also declares the invisible suffering of God, who was united with His Son’s suffering for the world’s redemption.

The Gospel text shows how Jesus, in his explanation to Nicodemus, connects his impending crucifixion to the Old Testament story of the bronze serpent. Jesus reveals to Nicodemus that just as Moses lifted up the serpent on a pole to heal those bitten by snakes, Jesus, lifted on the cross, would bring healing and eternal life to those who look upon him in faith. Thus, the passage also underscores the salvific plan of God for the world through Jesus’ crucifixion. The divine intention is to bring salvation to the world and not leave it to its condemnation. In addition to being the ultimate expression of God’s love, the exalted cross points to the fact that on it, God’s love has been made personal and eternal. It would be no exaggeration to say that through his cross, Jesus immortalized God’s love, and there is no death or defeat to it.

Thus, the feast of the Exaltation inspires a profound reflection on the mystery of God’s love and the concretization of it by Jesus on the cross. We cannot disregard the powerful insights that we derive from the cross.

1. The cross means death to self. Looking at the crucifix, we remember that without death to the self, selfless love would not be possible. Moreover, Jesus has shown from the cross that a life lived for others is the fullest life. A death in charity and service is never a defeat.

2. The cross means emptying oneself in selfless love for the other. Reflecting on the cross, we learn that we may even give without love, but we cannot love without giving. Jesus, who surrendered himself on the cross for others, teaches that it is better to give than to receive. 

3. The cross means pride and victory. How? Indeed, it was a Roman instrument of torture till criminals died on it. But with Jesus, the meaning of the crucifixion changed because Jesus died for love and in love. Jesus transformed the selfish individual pain into vicarious suffering for the other.

Since the cross symbolizes the selfless love of Christ, it cannot mean defeat, pain, or shame. This is why we are healed by the cross, nourished by its sacrifice, and transformed by its love. 

Let us pray that we may take shelter in the cross to be transformed by its meaning and message. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar