LITURGY MATTERS: Look for your cross and you will find the Lord!

By Michael McKenna, Archdiocesan Master of Ceremonies

This month the universal Church celebrates the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Also known as the Triumph of the Cross, the feast reminds us that Christianity is not an abstract faith but rather emerges from God’s direct intervention in the history of humanity. Indeed, the Responsorial Psalm offered to us for the feast invites that we “not forget the works of the Lord”.

Upon the discovery in Jerusalem of the True Cross of Calvary and tomb of Christ by St Helena in 320AD, part of the cross is believed to have been sent to Rome, part to Constantinople, and part became the basis for one of two basilicas on the site.  

Legend holds that the day following the dedication of these basilicas, the True Cross was brought outside the newly built churches for the faithful to venerate, perhaps constituting the first showing or Exaltation of the Holy Cross on 14 September 335AD.

An enduring symbol for Christians of Christ’s victory over death, the cruelty of the Cross is not what is exalted but rather, it is God’s mercy and love made manifest in His plan to reconcile humanity to himself that is the glory of the Cross of Jesus.

The Church venerates his Cross as she sings: “Hail, O Cross, our only hope” (CCC 617). The Gospel reading for the feast invites us to consider the Cross in this context when it recounts our Lord’s words to Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… that the world might be saved through him.” (Jn 3:13-17)

In his book The Life of St Francis, G.K. Chesterton observes that for the Christians living in the Dark Ages the Cross became the symbol of hope through the darkness promising that life and death here on earth were not all there is to our worldly existence.

Christ invites saying, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). In a world increasingly hostile to the Gospel message, we do well to rediscover that the Cross is the place where hope resides, where we meet the person of Jesus Christ who is “the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:1-14).

Look for your cross and you will find the Lord. And as you bear your cross joyfully, let Him bear you to Heaven!