The crosses in Catholic churches and in Catholic homes, along with the crosses that Catholics wear and sign themselves with, should always serve as a reminder of Jesus’ glorious victory over sin and death.
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 to experience eternal life.
In the early 4th century, the mother of Emperor Constantine, St. Helena, discovered the site of Jesus’ Crucifixion while searching for holy places from the life of Jesus in Jerusalem.
Helena commissioned the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the site of her discovery. The True Cross was discovered during excavation and it has been venerated ever since.
A basilica and a shrine was built on the site of Jesus’ Crucifixion, Death, and Resurrection and dedicated by St. Constantine in 335 AD.
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. Celebrating both the discovery and the recovery of the True Cross, the feast is also called the Triumph of the Cross.
The great paradox of Christianity:
God chose to die on the Cross:
A symbol of disgrace transformed into a symbol of triumph:
“No one has gone up to Heaven except the one who has come down from Heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”
John 3: 13-15
The instrument of our salvation:
Reassurance that God loves us unconditionally:
“The Son of Man must be lifted up”, says Jesus to Nicodemus. And He says this with a view to his Crucifixion: The Son of Man must be lifted up on the Cross. Whoever believes in Him, whoever sees in this Cross and in the Crucified One the Redeemer of the world, whoever looks with faith on the redemptive death of Jesus on the Cross, finds in Him the power of eternal life. By this power, sin is overcome. People receive forgiveness of their sins at the price of the Sacrifice of Christ. They find again the life of God which had been lost by sin. This is the meaning of the Cross of Christ. This is its power. “God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through Him the world might be saved”. The feast that we celebrate today speaks of a marvellous and ceaseless action of God in human history, in the history of every man, woman and child. The Cross of Christ on Golgotha has become for all time the centre of this saving work of God. Christ is the Saviour of the world, because in Him and through Him the love with which God so loved the world is continuously revealed: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son.”
Pope John Paul II, Homily, 14 September 1988
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
Jesus Christ is for everyone, everywhere, all the time:
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