The Church celebrates the Triumph of the Cross on the 14th of September. It is also called the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. It commemorates the recovery of the Holy Cross by St. Helena.
Cross was a symbol of curse until Jesus died upon the cross. “Christ rescued us from the curse of the Law by becoming cursed himself for our sake, as it is written: There is a curse on everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal. 3, 13). Jesus said: “I lay down my life of my own free will” (Jn.10. 18). He willingly gave Himself up for our salvation. “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed” (Is. 53. 4,5)
‘The cross on which Jesus, the Son of Man, was lifted up has become the symbol of his victory over the power of evil. He made the instrument of humiliation, torture and death the instrument of our redemption’ (The Weekly Missal). So we proclaim our faith after the Consecration during the Holy Mass: ‘Dying you destroyed our death; rising you restored our life; Lord Jesus, come in glory’
Cross is not a sign of failure but of victory; not a sign of weakness but of strength. In Cross is our salvation. It may be a scandal and folly for unbelievers as St. Paul tells: “The language of the cross remains nonsense for those who are being lost. Yet for us who are being saved, it is the power of God. We proclaim a crucified Messiah…..Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. In reality, the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor. 1.18, 23-25).
In General Audience, on 29th October 2008 Pope Benedict XVI beautifully brought out ‘The Theology of the Cross’. “Centuries after Paul we see that in history it was the Cross that triumphed and not the wisdom that opposed it. The Crucified One is wisdom, for he truly shows who God is, that is, a force of love which went even as far as the Cross to save men and women. God uses ways and means that seem to us at first sight to be merely weakness. The Crucified One reveals on the one hand man’s frailty and on the other, the true power of God that is the free gift of love: this totally gratuitous love is true wisdom”:
Let us rejoice in the Cross of Christ because the death of Christ on the cross brings us to the glory of the resurrection.
WE ADORE YOU O LORD, AND WE PRAISE YOU BECAUSE BY YOUR HOLY CROSS YOU HAVE REDEEMED THE WHOLE WORLD
Mary Pereira