First Reading • Numbers 21:4b-9
Psalm • Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38
Second Reading • Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel • John 3:13-17
There are some feasts in our liturgical year so important that they interrupt our regular Sunday observance of Ordinary Time. Just a few months ago, we celebrated Saints Peter and Paul on a Sunday. Today, we do the same with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
On this day, we remember the dedication of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built on the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. But even more, we remember the cross itself and its saving power in our lives.
Fr. James Martin, S.J., tells a story in his book Jesus: A Pilgrimage about Doris, a hospital volunteer he met while a Jesuit novice.
Doris used a wheelchair and once shared that she first saw her wheelchair as her cross. Over time, though, she came to see it as her resurrection. She said, “My wheelchair helps me get around. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. Life would be so dull without it.”
Whether she realized it or not, Doris revealed something profound: the cross that looks like punishment or burden can become the very means of new life.
When we stop resisting suffering, when we embrace it with love, it changes us.
The truth is, we all have crosses to carry—not only in extraordinary moments of suffering, but in the ordinary days of family and community life.
In family life, crosses may come in the form of misunderstandings between spouses, tensions with children, or the sacrifices parents make for their families.
Some carry the cross of caring for a sick or elderly loved one. These can feel heavy, yet when embraced in love, they become a path to holiness.
In society, there are crosses like injustice, poverty, and exclusion. Many carry the hidden burdens of loneliness, depression, or doubt. Others bear the pain of not being understood or accepted.
These crosses are real, but they are not meaningless. Jesus teaches us that when they are carried with love, they open the way to new life.
And just as Jesus allowed Simon of Cyrene to help Him carry His cross, we too are called to help one another. We help carry the cross when we listen with compassion to someone’s struggles.
We lighten burdens when we share practical support—a meal, a visit, or a ride. We encourage others with a kind word, a smile, or a prayer offered together.
We help bear society’s crosses by standing up for justice and working to ease the suffering of the poor and the marginalized. Every time we do these things, we fulfill St. Paul’s words: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
The cross is central to our Christian life. We sign ourselves with it at every prayer. Our processions are led by it. It stands in every church.
But we must not forget: the cross was not always a sign of hope. In Jesus’ time, it was the most brutal form of execution, reserved for the worst criminals. It symbolized shame, defeat, and despair.
It wasn’t polished or beautiful. It was rough wood, cruel, and used only for the worst criminals. But Jesus transformed it. By embracing the cross in love and obedience, He turned it into the source of salvation. He could have avoided it, He could have silenced His enemies with power, but instead He chose to suffer and die—for you, for me, for the whole world.
Because of Him, we can see our own suffering differently. Some struggles can be eased with medicine or the help of others.
But there are burdens—loneliness, doubt, grief—that we must carry. Like Doris, and like Jesus, we can discover resurrection hidden within those crosses.
When we look at the crucified Christ, we see the depth of God’s love. He was lifted up to draw all people to Himself. His blood heals us.
His forgiveness never runs dry. No matter our past, we can always come back to Him. The cross is proof that God’s love is stronger than sin and death.
And it is all because of love. Not because we earned it, but because God is good. Jesus’ cross is an invitation to love as He loved, to embrace our crosses, and to walk with Him in transforming the world.
So today, we lift high the cross. The cross is not just something we look at—it marks who we are. Let us together make the sign of the cross, slowly and reverently, remembering the love of Jesus who died for us.
And we ask for the grace to embrace our own crosses, carrying them with love and trust, and to help others carry theirs—so that together we may be transformed and bring new life to the world.
