Sunday, September 14, 2014

You have to see it to believe it

          As Christians, we exalt the Holy Cross of Jesus because on it our sins - all that drags us down in this world - were destroyed; but we can't realize the dream of a life of true freedom (i.e. of freedom from sin) unless we are willing to look at the consequence of our sin.  When we see Christ crucified, we should see the consequence of our sin, for the consequence of our sin is always death.  Furthermore, we must look at it if we are to be truly moved to repentance.  Having been so moved, we can then receive the grace that flows from it.

P.S. My homily is kind of short this week because we showed the Fruitful Harvest video during Mass.

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Homily: The Exaltation of the Holy Cross – Cycle A
          It’s no secret that, for Christians, the cross is very important.  I mean, just look around you.  If you looked intently at your surroundings for about thirty seconds, you’d notice that the cross, in many different forms, appears throughout our church.  It’s even on the linens that we use at the altar.  Most prominent, of course, is this large cross, the crucifix (a cross with an image of Jesus’ body attached to it).  My guess is that if someone who didn’t know a thing about Christianity walked into this church, wondering about what was important to Christians, he or she might quickly discern that the cross is one of those things.
          Today, the cross is a pretty innocuous thing for us.  None of us would have first-hand knowledge of what a crucifixion looked like and so looking at a cross isn’t for us a thing of horror.  But for people living in the first century, for whom Roman crucifixions were a common thing, the cross was sign of horror.  If you’ve been following the news about the video tape of the football player striking his fiancée and knocking her unconscious you’ll understand what I mean: without having seen it, it was hard to imagine just how violent it was; but having seen it, the horror of it sparked a much greater emotional response.  Multiply that by a hundred and you’ll know what seeing a cross meant for someone living in the first century.
          Yet today, we come here and we celebrate the exaltation of the Holy Cross.  In other words, we, as Christians, gather today to exalt an instrument of torture and death: and none of us bats an eye.  Why?  Well, because we’re lunatics, of course, who think that horrific instruments of torture are good things.  No?  You don’t agree?  (I see that some of you are paying attention).  And so, why?  Why do we exalt the cross?  Well, in part, because we know the rest of the story: that Jesus’ death wasn’t the end and so his horrific murder was actually a triumphant act of salvation for the world.  And, at the least, this is why the cross is such a core symbol of our faith.  But why do we exalt the Cross with a special feast?  That’s a question that leads us to reflect on our readings today.
          In our first reading, we hear the story of how the Israelites, wandering in the desert on their way to the Promised Land, become tired and frustrated with the journey.  As a result, they sin by complaining against God and Moses.  Because of this sin, poisonous snakes were sent among them and many people were bitten and some were even dying from these bites.  The suffering people then repented of their sin and God relented of his punishment, instructing Moses to make an image of the serpent and place it on a pole so that all could look upon it and, thus, be cured.
          What we see in this story is a clear reminder that the consequence of sin is death and that when one repents of his or her sins, and begs God for mercy, God relents and saves him or her from death.  What is important for us to note today, however, is how God turned the death-dealing consequence of their sin (the snakes) into the instrument of their healing and salvation.
          And so, in the Gospel reading, we hear Jesus say “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.”  Jesus, therefore, is connecting his impending crucifixion with the healing brought forth through the bronze serpent on the pole: so that the image of ultimate consequence of sin—the death of man in all of its gruesome reality—would become the instrument by which many would come to repent of their own sins and thus receive God’s healing and mercy.  It was no longer enough for man to see the serpent; rather he needed to see the full extent of the punishment due to his sin: the horrific death of an innocent man on the Cross.
          And so we exalt the cross: for through it the price of our redemption was paid; thus promising us that anyone who looks upon it and, seeing the price of his or her sins, repents from them, would be healed of the poison that sin had injected into him or her and so would live.
          My brothers and sisters, let us pray today for the grace to look upon the cross anew and to let the image of Christ’s death on it pierce our hearts once again so that we may feel true sorrow for our sins and thus receive God’s healing mercy. For when we do, we will once again know the joy of God’s promise: the eternal life that his Son Jesus has won for us.
Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – September 13th & 14th, 2014

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

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