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Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Meditation
Philippians 2:6-11

The Triumph of the Cross

Today’s feast has a long history in the church. St. Helena’s discovery of the true cross was first celebrated on September 14 in a.d. 365. It was held in the church that Helena’s son, the Roman emperor Constantine, built over the site of Golgotha and the tomb of Jesus. The observance of this event spread quickly among Christians throughout the world, and in the seventh century this feast—coupled with another commemorating the restoration of the relic of the cross which had been seized by the Persians—was named the Feast of the Triumph, or Exaltation, of the Cross in the Roman calendar.

Though the ancient world shuddered at the thought of death by crucifixion—a horrific and shameful form of execution—Christians honor the cross as both the sign of Jesus’ suffering and the trophy of his victory over Satan, sin, and death. We revere the cross because through it we have come to know Jesus’ great love for us, and through the wounds that it inflicted, we have been saved and healed. As Rupert of Deutz, a twelfth-century Benedictine abbot, movingly proclaimed: “We venerate the cross as a safeguard of faith, as the strengthening of hope, and the throne of love. It is the sign of mercy, the proof of forgiveness, the vehicle of grace, and the banner of peace. We venerate the cross because it has broken down our pride, shattered our envy, redeemed our sin, and atoned for our punishment.

“The cross of Christ is the door to heaven, the key to paradise, the downfall of the devil, the uplifting of mankind, the consolation of our imprisonment, the prize for our freedom. . . . Tyrants are convicted by the cross and the mighty ones defeated. It lifts up the miserable and honors the poor. The cross is the end of darkness, the spreading of light, the flight of death, the ship of life and the kingdom of salvation.

“Whatever we accomplish for God, whatever we succeed and hope for, is the fruit of our veneration of the cross. By the cross Christ draws everything to him. It is the kingdom of the Father, the scepter of the Son, and the seal of the Holy Spirit, a witness to the total Trinity.”

“We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	Bitterness: Is It Poisoning Your Life?
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D
Date:	Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17

Today's reading from the Old Testament book of Numbers finds the poor old Israelites doing yet again what they seem to have done through the whole 40 years of their trek from Egypt to the Promised Land. They were complaining: the diet is boring, this barren landscape is ugly, and we're sick of manna.

So, the story says, God sent a plague of poisonous serpents which killed many of their number. But was it really the serpents who killed them? Wasn't it a poison that was already inside them, their abiding bitterness and discontent with life, their cavalier refusal to trust God, who had liberated them from Pharaoh?

Too many of us who call ourselves Christians are walking around with lethal quantities of poison inside us. And just as nature supplies almost infinite varieties of poisons, so do human hearts. Envies, jealousies, grievances cherished sometimes for decades and across generations, racial and ethnic resentments, ideological hatreds of every sort. And nowhere is this latter more visible than within — not between, but within — Christian churches.

All of that bitterness and discontent keeps the Lord at arm's length and leaves us without peace and without joy. There is only one remedy for it, and that is to give it all to the Lord and keep giving it and giving it to Him and not taking it back, until it is truly gone from our lives.

Then and only then will the peace of Christ for which we have always longed truly be ours.

Peace be with you this day and always.