The Triumph of the Cross

The Feast of the Triumph of the Cross is celebrated each year on September 14. I always remembered that day because it was my mother’s birthday. In 1984, Pope John Paul II came to Toronto and celebrated Mass near the Downsview airport. I remember because I was there.
About 400,000 people put up with the soggy ground as he celebrated Mass. A huge cross dominated the landscape.

How did the cross – considered in Jesus’ own lifetime to be the ultimate sign of degradation, shame, and abandonment – eventually became a sign of victory and exaltation?

What was the Cross, if not the cruellest and most bloody of death sentences, imposed by the Roman authorities to make an example of someone, as a public deterrent to all who dared to defy the authority and laws of the Empire?

Yet paradoxically, in being willingly embraced by Jesus – in perfect obedience to the mission of self- giving, sacrificial love to which the Father had called Him– this sign of defeat was transformed into an instrument of goodness and grace.

In his writing on the death of Jesus on the cross, St Paul says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who emptied himself, humbled himself becoming obedient even unto death, death on a cross.” The Cross reminds us that God does not stand aloof, distancing himself from our human suffering. Rather, God chooses to embrace it, in solidarity with us.

God looked down on us and saw a world brimming with sorrow, filled with anguish, in need of new hope. So as Vincentians we must embrace the cross. We must see the world today that is filled with problems and sorrow.

Then it is up to us to do our best to alleviate this sorrow and pain that we see in those in need; the sick,the homeless, the hungry, those in jail. “Lifted up” on the Cross, Jesus lifts each of us up to God.

What about us? Jesus makes this quite clear: if we are to be his followers, if we are to be glorified as He was – then we too must be willing to have this love for one another. “There is no greater love than this,” says the Lord, “than you lay down your life for your friend.”

How do we, in our frail and sinful humanity, grow into this love?

You may be thinking, “how am I supposed to do this?” I can barely cope with my family – my work – my studies – my struggles in relationship – my attempt to set some time aside for God, in my busy life – and I am supposed to grow in this love? But God will help us.

Let’s be conscious of the deeper meaning of the Cross. Let us remember that the Cross reveals not only the great evil that exists in our world, but also the eternal response to that evil by our good and loving God.

Lift high the Cross. The love of God is proclaimed.
Till all the world proclaims His sacred name.

Deacon John Girolami
Spiritual Advisor
SSVP Ontario Regional Council