The crosses in our churches and in our homes, along with the crosses that we wear and that we sign ourselves with, should always serve as a reminder of Jesus’ glorious victory.
Non-believers may wonder why Catholics commemorate the Cross, the instrument that was used to torture and kill Jesus, not understanding that it is actually the means of salvation.
By his death on the Cross and his Resurrection from the tomb Jesus defeated death, allowing man to enter Heaven and experience eternal life.
In the early 4th century, the mother of Emperor Constantine, St. Helena, searched Jerusalem for holy places from the life of Jesus. In 335 AD, Constantine built a basilica and a shrine on the site of Jesus’ Crucifixion. There, the True Cross was discovered and it has been venerated ever since.
The Cross of Jesus was captured by the King of Persia in 614 and returned to Jerusalem in 631 by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius.
Both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14. The feast is also called the Triumph of the Cross.
The great paradox of Christianity:
God chose to die on the Cross:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2: 5-8
The instrument of our salvation:
Reassurance that God loves us unconditionally:
Are not Christian communion and witness grounded in the Paschal Mystery, in the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Christ? Is it not there that they find their fulfilment? There is an inseparable bond between the cross and the resurrection which Christians must never forget. Without this bond, to exalt the cross would mean to justify suffering and death, seeing them merely as our inevitable fate. For Christians, to exalt the cross means to be united to the totality of God’s unconditional love for mankind. It means making an act of faith! To exalt the cross, against the backdrop of the resurrection, means to desire to experience and to show the totality of this love. It means making an act of love! To exalt the cross means to be a committed herald of fraternal and ecclesial communion, the source of authentic Christian witness. It means making an act of hope!
Pope Benedict XVI, Visit to St. Paul Basilica in Harissa, 14 September 2012
The Cross triumphs:
Embrace Jesus’ Cross as well as your own:
Not the suffering but the way to face suffering:
The Council of Trent emphasizes the unique character of Christ’s sacrifice as “the source of eternal salvation” and teaches that “his most holy Passion on the wood of the Cross merited justification for us.” and the Church venerates his Cross as she sings: “Hail, O Cross, our only hope.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 617
Exalting the Cross on the site where Jesus was crucified:
A univeral celebration lived in different ways:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Made for another world:
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