Scripture Reflection September 14, 2008: Triumph of the Cross

Scripture Readings:
Numbers 21: 4-9
Psalm 78
Philippians 2: 6-11
John 3: 13-17

This coming Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. If we had been present at the crucifixion of Jesus, chances are that we would have walked away feeling not a single ounce of exaltation or triumph. We would have witnessed the brutal, drawn-out execution of an innocent person. We would have seen a Jesus who was betrayed by a friend, shouted at by crowds of people, and then killed according to the brutal methods of an oppressive Roman occupying force. It was the kind of execution designed not just to get rid of someone thought to be a criminal or a threat, but one meant to terrify anyone who saw it or heard about it. It was intended to terrify the populace into submission. If we had been there on Good Friday and someone had told us that, centuries later, followers of Jesus could be celebrating a day called “the exaltation of the cross,” we would have thought that person to be completely crazy.

But as Catholic Christians we do in fact celebrate this day. We believe that it is a day which gives us hope and strength – a day meant to renew us in faith. As I was thinking about the meaning of this feast, I remembered a wedding on Long Island at which I officiated a couple of years ago. The daughter of some friends of mine was getting married, and I was asked to preside at the nuptial Mass. As I was distributing communion that day, I watched as a couple slowly made their way up the aisle. It was obvious that the husband had some kind of severe disability. His wife had to walk with him carefully and help him receive the Eucharist. Later on, at the reception, I found myself sitting at the table with this couple. It turned out that they were the aunt and uncle of the bride. During the conversation I learned that this man had suffered a serious stroke a couple of years earlier. He had once been a tall, strapping New York City police detective, but now he was seriously disabled while still only in his sixties. I could not help but notice how thoughtful and gentle his wife was with him, as she helped him with his food and drink in a way that honored his dignity.

This wedding reception featured the usual “DJ”, who played music at the level of many thousands of decibels (!!). At one point, he played a song that everyone knew and wanted to dance to. So I found myself sitting alone at the table with this couple. The wife explained that they loved to dance and how, before her husband’s stroke, they would be the first couple out on the dance floor and the last to leave. I watched as she just stood beside his chair and held his hand. She looked at him with a smile and moved his hand up and down to the beat of the music. It was if they were still dancing after all these years, even though her husband could no longer dance, at least physically. They were still dancing together.

When we reflect on the death of Jesus we can look at the crucifix and hear an enduring word being spoken to us there. The cross speaks, as if to say: “I would do anything for you. These are the lengths to which I would go, the lengths to which I have gone, to offer you my saving and life-giving love.” In Christ God has poured out his saving love even in the face of rejection, not just the rejection shown by those who lived at the time of Jesus but also the many rejections of God’s love by sin throughout history. As Saint Paul writes in the passage from Philippians chosen for this feast: “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped; rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness . . . He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

We celebrate the triumph of the cross because the cross -- this terrifying sign of rejection and death -- has been transformed by the saving love of God. This is a love that would not quit, that would not be defeated, even by death itself. It was as if Jesus wanted to say to us, with his arms outstretched on the cross, “I would do anything for you.” And in raising his Son from the dead, the Father assured us that his life-giving love would have the final word in history and in our lives as individuals.

Reflecting on my experience of that couple at the wedding on Long Island, it seems to me that they knew something about the triumph of the cross. The tragedy of a stroke and its debilitating effects had been transformed by faithful love. I am sure that they have their share of dark and difficult moments in their life together. That is very normal. But watching the way in which they interacted that day, especially the compassionate and dignified way in which the wife dealt with her ailing husband, was a lesson for me in reverence for the dignity of another person. It provided, too, a glimpse into the mystery of the triumph of the cross.

Saint Paul exhorts the Philippians to emulate this Jesus who emptied himself for us. He urges them to adopt his attitude of humble service, of a faithful love that looks beyond self-interest and truly seeks the good of the other. It is by adopting this mindset, the attitude of Jesus Christ, that the cross becomes much more than simply a religious symbol in our lives. In becoming ever more like the Jesus who humbled himself, whose actions told us that he would do anything for us, we experience the triumph of the cross in our own lives.

Fr. Robin Ryan, cp