Exaltation ot the Holy Cross
(A-cycle) September 14, 2008
He’s not the first person to ask that question, and I’m afraid he won’t be the last. Why do the innocent suffer? Or, what it comes down to, what has God got against me? Even Jesus on the cross cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me"?
Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It’s really a play on words. Jesus was literally, physically lifted up on the cross; we say he was spiritually lifted up, exalted in the same place and by his cross and resurrection will lift us up, exalt us, redeem us, save us. “The Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”.
The Gospel of John, which I have just quoted, was the last to be written. By that time, the Christian community had the opportunity to reflect on the death of Jesus and had come to see that the cross was not a tragic defeat but a glorious victory. God had not forsaken Jesus; God was with him right to the end, ready to raise him from the dead.
This seems to have been a time when the cross has crashed into the lives of some of our parishioners, some of our families, some of the finest people it has been my privilege to know. It must feel not as if God is lifting you up, rather it must seem as if God is letting you down. Why you? I can’t give you a neat answer. The best I can do is to again quote John: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that those who believe in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life”, God has not forsaken you. God is with you, even, especially, when he seems far away. He is close to you, supporting you, wanting to give you happiness greater than you have ever known.
I just read this article by Sean Duffy in The National Catholic Reporter. His mother was dying of pancreatic cancer. On the day she would die, she woke me and asked if I remembered a bakery in the town where I’d grown up, she said “They make great apple strudel…Take my car and get one. I’ll get the nurse to bring a pot of coffee". When I got back the coffee was there---a pot and two cups. My mom and I had some of the strudel. It was the first thing she’d eaten in weeks, and the last thing she would eat on earth. She died that night. The moment was sacramental: a shared bite, something sweet, the bitter coffee, the hours and the years of caring---all there, shared, remembered, made real, in thanksgiving.” The cross is an exaltation---for those who have the eyes of faith to see it.