Triumph of the Cross
ONE
You are safe! Jesus Christ has conquered Satan, sin and death and the fear of death. Jesus has given you the Holy Spirit who is the Lord and Giver of eternal life. You are safe with Jesus Christ, victorious over sin and death.
The saving death and Resurrection of Jesus is not a myth or a fable. They are real historical events. Jesus is real. He died for you and He rose for you.
The Feast we celebrate Tomorrow, Monday September 14th, the Triumph of the Cross, celebrates both the discovery and the recovery of the True Cross of Jesus Christ and with it the finding of the empty Tomb of Jesus. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. With His life in you – you are safe!
TWO
St Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 325 AD to find and restore all of the places connected with the life of Jesus. In God’s Providence, the most important places, such as the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem, Calvary and the empty Tomb of the Resurrection were known for two reasons: First, Christians had continuously venerated these places from the time of Jesus; second the Roman Emperor Hadrian, following the Bar Kokhba rebellion in AD 132, in an attempt to suppress Christian pilgrimage to these sites placed a pagan temple on top of Calvary, over the empty Tomb of Jesus and over his birthplace in Bethlehem. The Emperor Hadrian perfectly preserved our most important holy sites and they were known to everyone.
When Queen Helena arrived, she ordered the pagan temples removed where underneath she found Calvary, the tomb of Jesus and his birthplace preserved.
Calvary where Jesus was crucified was outside the original city of Jerusalem in a rock quarry next to the town dump. Helena ordered her troops to excavate the dump and on May 3rd, 326 AD they found three crosses.
According to the historian Rufinus, the identity of the True Cross was confirmed by a miraculous healing. Unsure which of the three crosses was the one on which Jesus was crucified, the bishop of Jerusalem, St. Macarius, had all three crosses touched to the corpse of a dead man as well as to the body of a woman with an incurable illness. When one of the crosses brought the dead man to life and instantly cured the sick woman, they knew they had discovered the life-giving Cross of Jesus Christ.
Queen Helena had the Church of the Holy Sepulcher built over Calvary and the empty tomb of Jesus. She also built the Church of the Nativity over the Birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem. Jesus Christ is not a myth or legend. He is real and you are safe.
THREE
We also celebrate this day the restoring of the Cross to Jerusalem after it had been stolen in 614 AD by the Persian King Chosroes, modern day Iran, who attacked Palestine, destroying Churches, killing Christians and taking the true Cross of Jesus. Later, Chosroes son Kavadh returned the True Cross to the Christian Emperor Heraclius.
Heraclius wanted to carry the Cross of Jesus on his back into Jerusalem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre but he was unable to lift it while wearing his royal garments. Modestos the Patriarch of Jerusalem said to him: “How can you carry the Cross of Jesus dressed in expensive robes when Jesus carried the Cross in poverty. Hearing this, the Emperor removed his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes and carried the Cross barefoot into Jerusalem.
FOUR
The Feast of the Triumph of the Cross remind of the meaning and
If you experience a cross and have done all you can to change it, then God is allowing it for two reasons:
To empty you to fill you with His divine life.
To invite you to be a partner in His saving work.
On this first point St John of the Cross writes
We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.
For this reason the apostle Paul said of Christ: In him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God…Would that men might come at last to see that it is quite impossible to reach the thicket of the riches and wisdom of God except by first entering the thicket of much suffering, in such a way that the soul finds there its consolation and desire. The soul that longs for divine wisdom chooses first, and in truth, to enter the thicket of the cross.
Saint Paul therefore urges the Ephesians not to grow weary in the midst of tribulations, but to be steadfast and rooted and grounded in love, so that they may know with all the saints the breadth, the length, the height and the depth – to know what is beyond knowledge, the love of Christ, so as to be filled with all the fullness of God.
The gate that gives entry into these riches of his wisdom is the cross; because it is a narrow gate, while many seek the joys that can be gained through it, it is given to few to desire to pass through it.
Don’t despair, for God empties us of lesser things to flood us with the Greatest – Himself.
FIVE
Jesus is inviting us to be a partner in His saving work. St. Paul writes: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His body, that is, the Church” (Colossians 1:24).
How could Christ’s sufferings be lacking? And if they were lacking, how could we make up for it?
Think of it this way: Christ preached the Gospel, but if we don’t participate in preaching the Gospel, Christ’s preaching won’t have its full effect. Christ loved and served the poor, but if we don’t participate in His love and service for the poor, His love for the poor won’t have its full effect. And Christ suffered for souls, but if we don’t participate in His suffering for souls, than His suffering won’t have its full effect. That’s what it means to “make up what is lacking in Christ’s sufferings for the good of the Church”: it means Christ makes the full impact of Calvary dependent on our willingness to cooperate with Him.