My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Today we celebrate a feast that, to the outside world, makes absolutely no sense. We celebrate the ...
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today we celebrate a feast that, to the outside world, makes absolutely no sense. We celebrate the "Exaltation of the Holy Cross."
Why would we "exalt" an instrument of torture? Why would we lift high a symbol of failure, humiliation, and the most agonizing death imaginable in the Roman world? It would be like us, 2,000 years from now, wearing a miniature electric chair or a golden hangman's noose around our necks. It's shocking.
Why do we do it? Why do we kiss this wood on Good Friday and hail it today as our victory?
Our readings give us the answer. They provide us with three words that unlock this mystery: Sin, Sacrifice, and Salvation.
Sin. First, our readings confront us with the reality of Sin.
In our first reading from the Book of Numbers, the Israelites are in the desert. And what are they doing? They are complaining. They are tired of the journey, tired of the manna, and they speak against God and Moses.
Their "grumbling" is the symptom of a deeper venom: a lack of trust, a rejection of God's saving plan. As a consequence, fiery serpents invade the camp, biting the people, and many die.
These serpents are not just snakes; they are a physical manifestation of the spiritual venom of sin. Sin poisons our hearts. It poisons our relationships. It is the venom that tells us we are not good enough, that God has abandoned us, that our suffering is meaningless. Like the Israelites, we often find ourselves lost in the desert of our own lives, afflicted by the poison of our own pride, our impatience, our despair, and our selfishness. This is the reality of Sin.
Sacrifice. Faced with this deadly venom, what is God’s remedy? It is bizarre.
He doesn't send an antidote or rain down medicine. He tells Moses to do something strange: "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole." Anyone bitten who looks at this bronze serpent will live.
Notice, God doesn't take the serpents away. The affliction remains. But He provides a focal point for their faith. They had to look upon the very image of their affliction—lifted up on a pole—to be healed.
This, as Jesus confirms in our Gospel today, was a prefigurement of the ultimate Sacrifice.
Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
On the Cross, Jesus became the very image of our affliction. He took upon himself the fullness of human sin, the "fiery venom" of death itself.
This is the meaning of that breathtaking hymn in our second reading from Philippians. Christ Jesus, "though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped." He emptied himself. He humbled himself. He became obedient not just to death, but to death on a Cross.
This emptying—this sacrifice—is the complete opposite of the sin in the desert. Where humanity grasped in pride (like Adam, or the Israelites), Christ released in humility. He took our worst—our failure, our suffering, our sin, our death—and willingly nailed it to that tree. This is the ultimate sacrifice.
Salvation. Why would God do this? Why this path of sacrifice? Our Gospel gives the most famous answer in the world:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."
This brings us to our final word: Salvation.
When the Israelites looked at the bronze serpent, they received healing. When we look at the crucified Christ, we receive something infinitely greater: we receive Salvation. We receive eternal life.
This is why we "exalt" the Cross. We are not celebrating torture. We are celebrating the result of the Cross. Because of this perfect sacrifice, God "highly exalted him." The Cross is the turning point of human history. It is the throne from which Christ defeated death. It is the instrument that transformed the greatest symbol of human hatred into the greatest symbol of divine love.
When we look at the Cross, we do not see defeat. We see victory. We do not see shame; we see glory. We do not see an ending; we see the beginning of the Resurrection.
My friends, we all have deserts in our lives. We all feel the bite of the fiery serpents—the venom of anxiety, of grief, of failure, or the persistent sting of our own sin.
Today, the Church invites us to do exactly what the Israelites did. We are invited to look up.
When you feel hopeless, look at the Cross and see the God who emptied Himself for you. When you feel trapped by your sin, look at the Cross and see the price that was paid for your freedom. When you feel abandoned, look at the Cross and know the answer to the question, "Does God love me?"
The Cross is the definitive "Yes."
It is our map when we are lost, our medicine when we are poisoned, and our bridge from death to life. It is the ultimate sign of our Sin defeated, Christ's perfect Sacrifice offered, and our eternal Salvation won.
That is why we do not hide it. That is why we do not fear it. That is why we exalt it.
Amen.
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