Father Dan Beeman Exaltation of the Most Holy Cross, Year A Holy Trinity Catholic Church From the worship aide for today s Mass: Welcome to Holy Trinity! Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Most Holy Cross. Today s feast celebrates a double anniversary. In Jerusalem, Constantine erected a round church, the Anastasis, above the empty grave of Jesus, and a basilica, the Martyrium; in the square between the two churches, a shrine, Calvarium, marking the place of the crucifixion of the Christ. Dedicated on 14 September 335, they were destroyed by the Persians in 614. The two churches were rebuilt c.626 but were later destroyed by the Muslims in 1009. The present church of the Holy Sepulcher, rebuilt by the Crusaders, was dedicated in 1149. Today also commemorated the discovery of the Lord s cross by the empress, Saint Helena in the year 320. For a Catholic seminarian, life can occasionally become routine. There is a ritual and procedure, schedules and expectations. And so an interruption to that routine can be very welcomed, particularly when that interruption might keep you out of a finance council meeting at the parish. So I will never forget my excitement all those years ago when I was at the rectory showering and changing after an afternoon run on my way back to the parish for that finance council meeting, when I noticed the sight of two men in white shirts walking toward the house. Nothing could be better for a seminarian than two Mormons knocking on the door! I was ready for a theological discussion. Forget how I could get my own planet one day, I had heard that you have to be married to get to the highest level of heaven, and as one who was about to make a life time promise of celibacy, I had a bone to pick with them on that one! Now, to be fair, I m over simplifying those two beliefs, and the LDS or Mormon Church shares has a level of respect, at least now, for the Catholic faith that is not found in other door-to-door communities like the Jehovah s Witnesses. So there we are, two Mormon elders and a Catholic Deacon Two Mormons and two Catholic sitting in a rectory it should be the beginning of a great joke. As our conversation continued, sadly with neither of us Baptizing the other as we had hoped, I off handedly asked them if Mormons are Christians, how come none of your churches or chapels have crosses anywhere, and you don t wear them or have them on your logo or signs? They named a very honest answer: when Mormonism was founded it was fiercely anti-catholic and the Cross was so associated with the Catholic Church, they avoided them. But secondly, he said, the better question is this: if the Cross is the means by which the Savior was killed, why would you hang it on the wall? He carried the illustration further. If your loved one was killed by a
drunk driver would you celebrate the car or the bottle, or do we hang the electric chair on the wall to celebrate the execution of those who were legitimate criminals? So he turned the question around and said, the real question is this: why would you ever celebrate the Cross? WE ADORE THEE, O CHRIST, AND WE PRAISE THEE. FOR BY THY HOLY CROSS, THOU HAST REDEEMED THE WORLD. This prayer has been professed by Catholics through the centuries on Good Friday, at the Stations, in morning offerings and in powerful hymns. By the Holy Cross, Jesus Christ has redeemed the world. Saint John s Gospel this day clearly articulates the concept of Christianity that God gave His Son to us and that by His Son s death, He has saved us. That s the short answer. He saved the world by it, and that is reason enough. But a closer look at the truth of the Cross on this Feast Day is essential. The Cross is in fact something we exalt, something we celebrate, the symbol that has pride of place for the Catholic Christian, because it tells of so much more than the means by which our Savior gave His life for us. The Cross tells us everything. Think about it. The Cross tells us first of the Incarnation, the taking on of flesh and becoming man of our God. The primary Christian distinction, what separates us from every other religion, is that our God became one of us. His incarnation separates Him from any lesser god the world has known by that very fact alone. God so loved the world that He gave Himself, His only begotten Son, in order to save us. Every other religion at that point believed in prophets or far away gods that had to be appeased in order to keep them happy, to stay in their favor. Now the Cross tells us of a God who is like you and me in everything but sin, but who is willing to take on the final sacrifice not for Himself, but for us. It is the story of the perfect humility of a Son joined to the perfect strength of our God. The Cross tells us that our God took on flesh and gained nothing by it. Secondly, as Jesus is held up high on the Cross, as in the image of that seraph serpent in the scene from the Exodus, the Cross is a symbol of the extent to which our God would go for our sake. The torture, bearing the burden of carrying His Cross, the piercing crown upon his innocent brow, all of it leads to a scene where our God s statement to us is the reminder that there is nothing God would not do to save us. When the consequence of the world demanded payment for our sin, God answered it with the Sacrifice of His only Son so that we could become His sons and daughters too. Never forget, my fellow Christ followers, that the Cross is a sign that
our God desired us so much that He would stop at nothing, including the death of His own Son so that we could know what it is like to be pursued by the author of Perfection. And finally? With a God whose delight was to be humbled and be born as a slave so that He could be with us; with a God who says He would rather die than live without us; with both of those things in mind, the final way that the Cross is something to celebrate is the most important. The Cross is proof absolute and certain proof that with our God, not even death can stop His love. There is nothing, in the face of the Cross, that can keep us from knowing our God, His love, and His peace. And if the Cross is a symbol that life conquers death, then it is the symbol that our faith in Jesus Christ can conquer everything that stands in the way of our union with God. The question that this feast leaves for you and me is simple: Where in your life do you need to better lean into the Cross so you can realize what God has done for you? If you ve been trying to figure it all out on your own, letting your own thought or philosophy or the desires of the world direct you, the Cross stands as invitation to realize a perfect love that is unexplainable, but that draws you in to a relationship with the loving Father. If that s you, trust me that when you stop running and start trusting again, the grace is real, the forgiveness after a good Confession and the promise of the Eucharist will solidify that. If you re either frantic or paralyzed with fear about the way that Christ is still being persecuted, whether it be by the threat of radical Islam or the sinful and selfish action of people of all faiths; if you are filled with worry or anger about the way things are around us, or the direction of our country, you aren t alone. But only the Cross can speak into that reality by the promise that there is no evil, no struggle, no burden that doesn t have the promise of life at the end of it for those who trust Jesus Christ. If you are just numb because you re tired, or frustrated, sad, are mourning, or have just been going through the motions there is a message in the Cross for you too. A message that if you ll look up to that Cross, you ll see in in at symbol of love that can shake you from this temporary moment by promising you an eternal joy if you will just hand over your trust and let Him love you.
See, my young Mormon friends asked why would you ever make the Cross your sign? Why wouldn t we? How could we not? The Cross is our sign, our symbol, the staff that we now hold up high to make the impossible possible, that makes life out of death; it is the greatest symbol of love the world has ever known, the symbol of everything we believe in as Christians. That sacrifice has its fullest meaning in Jesus and that life takes on its fullest meaning when we give ours away. At the center of our faith stands the cross. Between heaven and earth stands the cross. At the end of Jesus life and in the midst of our life stands the cross. With the Cross, that which is not of God, every bit of it is conquered, and that which of God is Glorified. Draw near to the Cross and let it be the symbol and the sign that you will not live one more moment without the One who gave it for us.
1. For the Church, that by embracing the struggle of the Cross we may more greatly anticipate the promise of the Resurrection, we pray. 2. In thanksgiving for the perpetual vows and consecration of Sister Megan Conway, of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother this week, and for all consecrated sisters and nuns, we pray. 3. For the protection and preservation of every life at every stage. That we more greatly revere our humanity in order to share in Christ s divinity, we pray. 4. For those who serve us in the military here and abroad, that they be kept safe from all harm, and for their families who sacrifice with them, we pray. 5. For those who are ill, who ask for God s healing and strength, especially: We pray. Father Dan Klem, 6. For those who have died, especially: and for: 5:00pm the repose of the soul of Connie Carmone 9:00am the repose of the souls of Frank and Virginia Gerloff 11:00am the intentions of Emmet Donahue 1:00pm HTC Which is the intention of this Mass, we pray.