Catholic Caucus: Sunday Mass Readings, 9-14-03, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments and discussion.

Adoration
Question from Simon Njovu on 07-24-2003:

Do we catholics adore the cross? If yes, why do we bow towards where there is Eucharist as on Good Thursday and not the Cross (crucifix)? What is the difference between adoration and veneration?

Answer by David Gregson on 08-13-2003:

Adoration in the strict sense (Greek latreia) is a religious act by which a rational creature acknowledges God's supreme perfection, His dominion over all, and the creature's absolute dependence on Him. It is an act of self-abasement before Infinite Being (cf. Rev 7:11-12). By this definition, adoration is due to God alone, since only He fits this description. In a looser sense, it is equivalent to veneration. Veneration is the respect due to Saints (and Angels), in view of their sanctity, and therefore due to their relics. The Cross is a relic of Christ Himself, and the instrument of our salvation. It is deserving of the highest veneration, which is expressed in the "Adoration of the Cross" in the Good Friday Liturgy. True Cross itself is represented by the various crosses used in the rite. But even the True Cross would not be adored in the strict sense, since it is not Christ Himself, though so closely associated with Him.

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Thought for the Day

We adore you and we bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all the churches which are in the whole world, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

-- St. Francis of Assisi

The Word Among Us

Sunday, September 14, 2003

Meditation
John 3:13-17

The Triumph of the Cross

A volcanic eruption rips open a mountain. A powerful avalanche rushes down a slope and levels everything in its path. A raging flood runs through a ravine at a furious pace. In each of these scenes we see manifestations of incredible power. We see how nothing can stand in their way, how anything that comes into contact with these forces is overrun. Today the church celebrates the triumph of the cross. As volcanoes, avalanches, and raging floods are three of the most powerful natural forces we know, so the cross of Jesus is the most powerful spiritual force in the entire universe.

Think about the power of the cross. Has any other single act in history won forgiveness for every sin that has ever been committed? Has any other event completely defeated the devil and all his minions in their attempt to control our lives and move us away from God? Has any other event been powerful enough to rip the veil that separated heaven from earth and reveal a new and living way to the Father?

Like dynamite, the cross of Jesus has the power to blast away any deeply ingrained pattern of sin in our lives. Like a mighty flood, it can wash all anger, fear, and despair from our hearts and minds. Like an avalanche, it can shower down on us the love of God in a way that destroys any obstacle to his presence. This cross is our way of victory because it points to a new day, a new hope, a new joy.

How about you? Have you seen a sin pattern exploded as you’ve turned to the Lord for help? Have you seen a wounded relationship that seems beyond saving turn around over time? Then today is your day to rejoice along with all the angels and saints. Today is your day to be awed by the impact the cross has had—and will continue to have—on your life and the lives of those you love. The cross of Christ—radiant and triumphant—can overcome every spiritual, physical, or emotional obstacle to God’s love.

“Jesus, I marvel at the power of your cross. I believe that your death and resurrection have won my complete redemption. With joy, I celebrate the triumph of your cross—even over those situations where I have yet to taste your victory.”

A note to all of you:

I am going to be helping with a retreat this weekend and so am posting three days of readings. Thank you for bearing with me in this matter.

And please keep those who are attending this grief recovery retreat in your prayers.

For more on this beautiful feast, visit ...

FEAST OF THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

Feast of The Exaltation of The Holy Cross
14 September 335

During the reign of Constantine, first Roman Emperor to profess the Christian faith, his mother Helena went to Israel and there undertook to find the places especially significant to Christians. (She was helped in this by the fact that in their destructions around 135, the Romans had built pagan shrines over many of these sites.) Having located, close together, what she believed to be the sites of the Crucifixion and of the Burial (at locations that modern archaeologists think may be correct), she then had built over them the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was dedicated on 14 September 335. It has become a day for recognizing the Cross (in a festal atmosphere that would be inappropriate on Good Friday) as a symbol of triumph, as a sign of Christ's victory over death, and a reminder of His promise, "And when I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." (John 12:32)

Tertullian, in his De Corona (3:2), written around AD 211, says that Christians seldom do anything significant without making the sign of the cross. Certainly by his time the practice was well established. Justin Martyr, in chapters 55 and 60 of his First Apology (Defence of the Christian Faith, addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius and therefore written between 148 and 155 AD), refers to the cross as a standard Christian symbol, but not explicitly to tracing the sign of the cross as a devotional gesture. In the ruins of Pompeii (destroyed 79 AD), there is a room with an altar-like structure against one wall, and over the altar the appearance of the plaster shows that a cross-shaped object had been nailed to the wall, and forcibly pulled loose, apparently shortly before the volcano buried the city. It is suggested that this house may have belonged to a Christian family, and that they took the cross and other objects of value to them when they fled the city. This is not the only possible explanation, but I do not know of a likelier one.

The Christian custom of tracing the sign of the cross on persons and things as a sign of blessing is very old. Some think that it goes back to the very origins of Christianity and earlier. In Ezekiel 9, we read that Ezekiel had a vision of the throne-room of God, in which an angel was sent to go through Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the faithful few who mourned for the sins of the city. Afterwards, other angels were sent through the city to destroy all those who had not the mark. We find similar visionary material in Revelation 7:2-4; 9:4; 14:1, where the mark on the forehead again protects the faithful few in the day of wrath, and it is said to be the name of the Lamb and of His Father. Now, the Hebrew word used for "mark" in Ezekiel is TAU, which is the also the name of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet (the ancestor of the Greek letter TAU and our letter T), and it refers to a mark like an X or a +, two short lines crossing at right angles. When the Essenes (the Dead Sea Scrolls people) received converts into their community, they baptized them and then signed them on their foreheads with a TAU, in token that they were part of the faithful remnant who mourned the sins of Israel, and that they would be spared in the day of God's wrath. It seems probable that John the Baptist and his followers were in some measure influenced by the Essenes, and they had certainly read Ezekiel. Accordingly, the tracing of a TAU on the forehead may have been a part of John's method of baptism, and may have been adopted by the earliest Christians. (We remember that some of the Twelve disciples had previously been disciples of John the Baptist -- see John 1:35-37,40.) Very possibly they began by tracing the TAU without asking what it meant -- it was simply a mark, the mark mentioned by Ezekiel. Later, they may have identified it with the Name of God. The Essenes, in some of their documents, used four dots in place of the four letters of the Name of God, and sometimes arranged them in a square. It would be easy to interpret the four ends of the TAU as representing the four letters of the Name of God. Later, Christians, especially Greek-speaking Christians, might interpret the sign as a CHI, an X-shaped letter, the first letter of the word XPICTOC, or Christos, meaning the Annointed One, the Messiah, the Christ. Again, Christians might understand it to be the sign of the Cross of Christ, and it is this interpretation that has prevailed. Today, in many Christian churches, when someone is baptized, the baptizer afterwards traces the sign of the cross on the forehead of the newly baptized person. Often, some of the water that has been used for baptism is saved and placed in small bowls near the entrance to the church. Worshippers entering the church touch the surface of the water and then cross themselves as a way of reaffirming their baptismal covenant. (A few years ago, a Jewish friend asked me, "May I go to the Easter Midnight service with you?" I said: "Certainly, if you like. However, I must warn you that there will be baptisms, and that afterwards the priest will take a bowl of baptismal water and a sprig of hyssop, and walk up and down the aisle sprinkling the congregation with the water, and if a single drop touches you, you will instantly turn into a goy." He answered, "I will bring an umbrella and open it at the appropriate time.") As we have seen, the practice of using the sign of the cross in connection with Baptism may very well go back to the Apostles themselves, and back before them into their Essene and other Jewish roots, having its origin in the vision of Ezekiel. In fact, the concept may go back further than that. We read in Genesis 4 that, when Cain had killed his brother and was sent into exile, God set a mark (TAU) on Cain, so that no one would slay him. Thus, from the start, the Sign of the Cross has been the protection of the penitent and justified sinner.

What is the significance of the sign of the cross? Well, in the first place, we often place our initials or other personal mark on something to show that it belongs to us. The Cross is the personal mark of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and we mark it on ourselves as a sign that we belong to Him, just as in the book of Revelation, as noted above, the servants of God are sealed or marked on their foreheads as a sign that they are His.

Again, as one preacher has said, if you were telling someone how to make a cross, you might say (at least to an English speaker), "Draw an I and then cross it out." As we make the sign, we first draw a vertical stroke, as if to say to God, "Lord, here am I." Then we cancel it with a horizontal stroke, as if to say, "Help me, Lord, to abandon my self-centeredness and self-will, and to make you the center of my life instead. Fix all my attention and all my desire on you, Lord, that I may forget my self, cancel my self, abandon myself completely to your love and service."

The Shape of The Cross

Most of us assume that we know what a cross looks like--that it is two beams of wood fastened together at right angles. However, occasionally we meet someone who claims otherwise. The counter-claim is likely to run like this:

"The churches will tell you that Jesus was put to death on a cross, but that is a lie. He was nailed to a single upright beam, with his hands directly over his head. The cross is a pagan symbol, actually a letter T, or Tau, standing for the god Tammuz, who was worshipped by the Canaanites. When you wear a cross, or make any religious use of a cross, you are really worshipping Tammuz, whether you know it or not; and any church that displays a cross, or sings hymns like "The Old Rugged Cross," or "Beneath the Cross of Jesus", actually has its origins in Tammuz-worship, and is an instrument of the Devil, and if you want to avoid the wrath of God, you had better flee from all such churches and sign up with the only organization in town that teaches Bible truth and is devoted to the pure worship of God and not of idols like Tammuz, and here I am, ready to sign you up."

It is therefore of some interest to know what evidence we have about the shape of the device on which Jesus was nailed up to die.

Minucius Felix, a Christian who wrote a work called Octavius, probably a little before 200 AD, says (chapter 29) that the shape of the cross is to be found everywhere you look.

Indeed, we see the sign of the cross naturally formed by a ship when it carries a full press of sail, or when it glides over the sea with outspread oars.

Note that a ship with a single vertical mast and a triangular sail is a modern device, used for sailing upwind by repeated tacking. The ancients did not do this. They used a ship with a square sail, and a vertical mast with a horizontal spar across it to hold the top of the sail. Hence a cross shape. Note also, that it is not necessary to agree with Minucius Felix that there is anything significant about the many places that the shape of a cross can be seen. What matters is that he knows that his readers will understand the shape of a cross to be two beams at right angles, not just a vertical beam.

The Greek word for the cross of Jesus, used many times in the New Testament and in early Greek Christian writings, is STAUROS, and the corresponding verb is STAURIZO = "crucify". Now, do any early writers use these words in a way that would make it clear what shape they were talking about?

A pagan writer, Lucian of Samosata, probable dates 120-180 AD, wrote a fantasy called The Trial of The Vowels, in which the letter Tau is summoned before a panel of judges, the seven vowels, and is accused of being a general mischief-maker. The charges tend to be like this (to invent an example in English):

"Consider the word SUN. How good a thing the sun is! It is the source of light and warmth, and is indispensable for life itself. Along comes the letter T, and changes the word to STUN. What does it mean to stun a man? It means "to knock him out cold--to ice him," or to deprive him of warmth. It means "to punch his lights out," or to deprive him of light. It means "to knock him dead," or to deprive him of consciousness, and potentially of life itself. What a villain the letter T is, to turn good into evil in this fashion. (Several other examples follow.) And consider that evil thing, the STAUROS, instrument of torment and shame and death. It takes its name from the letter TAU, because it is shaped like a TAU. What an evil device, and what an evil letter it is named for!"

Before I introduce my next writer, a digression is necessary. The Jews (beginning at what time I do not know) often wrote numbers using the letters of their alphabet, which has 22 letters. (Five of these letters developed distinct forms when used at the ends of words, which gives us 27 letters in all.) If we use the first nine letters for the numbers 1 to 9, the next nine for the numbers 10 to 90, and the last nine for the numbers 100 to 900, we can write anything from 1 to 999 in at most three characters. If we put a tick mark beside a letter to multiply its value by 1000, then with repeated tick marks we can write any positive whole number. (Note that not everyone used the five special forms. Without them, you get as far as Tau=400 and then use Tau Qoph = 400+100=500, Tau Resh = 400+200=600, etc.)

The Greeks used a similar system, which you can find in the writings of Archimedes. Their alphabet as we know it today has only 24 letters, but in an earlier version it had 27 letters. To round it out, add an F (or Digamma) after the Epsilon, and a Q (or Qoppa) after the Pi, and a Sampi (don't ask) at the end, and you have 27 letters. Use the first nine for 1 to 9, the middle nine for 10 to 90, the last nine for 100 to 900, tick marks or underlinings for multiplying by 100, and you are in business. If you omit the Hebrew letter Tsaddi, the remaining 21 letters correspond exactly and in the correct order with the first 21 letters of the 27-letter Greek alphabet. (The Greeks got their alphabet from the Pheonicians, whose language and alhabet were very similar to those of the Hebrews.)

With this system in hand, some Jewish students of the Scriptures noted the numerical values of various words or sentences, obtained by adding up the values of the letters, and found symbolic significance in the results. This is called GEMATRIA (from the Greek word for "geometry", here understood to mean mathematics in general). Obviously, the possibilities are endless.

Some Christians made similar use of the numerical values of Greek letters. Thus, since Jesus was crucified on Friday, the sixth day of the week, 6 stands for evil and death, as does its intensive form 666. But Jesus rose two days later, on what may be called the eighth day of the week, and so 8 is the number of resurrection, of renewal, of life restored and triumphant. It is thus no accident that the letters in the name of IESOUS add up to 888.

   Iota       =  10
   Eta        =   8
   Sigma      = 200
   Omicron    =  70
   Upsilon    = 400
   Sigma      = 200
                ---
   Total      = 888

Now for a particular example. In Genesis 14 we read that an invading army captured Abraham's nephew Lot and some others, and that Abraham took a band of 318 warriors, followed the army and in a surprise attack rescued the prisoners. Jewish scholars noted that 318 is written Cheth ("ch" as in "Bach," please) Yod Shin. Now Cheth Yod spells "chai," which means "life." Shin is the first letter of "shalom," which means "peace, deliverance, wholeness, well-being." Thus Abraham's group of warriors had 318 men in it, and was a source of life and peace to the prisoners whom they rescued.

Sometime between 70 (when the Temple was destroyed) and 135 (when Jerusalem was sacked again and a pagan shrine built on the site of the Temple), a man called Barnabas, or the pseudo-Barnabas, or Barnabas of Alexandria (not to be confused with the companion of Paul mentioned in the book of Acts), wrote a book called The Epistle of Barnabas, in which he points out that 318 written in Greek letters is Tau Iota Eta. Now, Tau clearly represents the cross, and Iota Eta are the first two letters of the Name of Jesus. Hence, the source of the life and peace that Jewish scholars had discovered in Abraham's 318 men is none other than the cross of Jesus.

Now, whether you think that that is a remarkable insight, or think that Barnabas of Alexandria is a complete air-head, is beside the point. The point is that he would not have used this argument if he did not know, and expect his readers to know, that a cross is shaped like a Tau.

Thus, we see that among pagans and Christians alike in the second century of the Christian era, a time when crucifixions were a common method of execution and everyone knew what they looked like, there was a general understanding that if a man had been crucified, it was probably on a vertical and a horizontal beam.

Prayers (traditional language)

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world unto himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and follow him; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.
O God, who by the passion of thy blessed Son didst make an instrument of shameful death to be unto us the means of life and peace: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Prayers (contemporary language)

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.
O God, who by the passion of your blessed Son made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life and peace: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Psalm 98 or 98:1-4
Isaiah 45:21-25
Philippians 2:5-11 or Galatians 6:14-18
John 12:31-36a (HWeek)

From: Numbers 21:4b-9

The Bronze Serpent

[4b] And the people became impatient on the way. [5] And the people
spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we
loathe this worthless food." [6] Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the
people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. [7] And
the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken
against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, that he take away the
serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. [8] And the Lord said to
Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is
bitten, when he sees it, shall live." [9] So Moses made a bronze serpent,
and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the
bronze serpent and live.

Commentary:

21:4-9. The people continue to complain against Moses, this time because
they have to go right around Edom. But their protest is also directed
against God. When they are punished, Moses once again intercedes on their
behalf. The events covered in this account may have taken place in the
region of Araba, where copper mines existed from the 13th century BC
onwards. In the town now called Timna, an Egyptian shrine has been unearthed
which contained a copper serpent, indicating that some sort of magical power
was attributed to these serpents.

This passage in Numbers is interpreted in Wisdom 16:5-12, where the point is
emphasized that it was not the bronze serpent that cured them but the mercy
of God; the serpent was a sign of the salvation which God offers all men.
The bronze serpent is mentioned later, in the Gospel, as typifying Christ
raised up on the cross, the cause of salvation for those who look at him
with faith: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believes in him may have eternal
life" (Jn 3:14-15) When Christ is raised above all human things, he draws
them towards himself; so his glorification is the means whereby all mankind
obtain healing for ever more.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Philippians 2:6-11

Hymn in Praise of Christ's Self-Emptying

([5] Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus,) [6]
who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God
a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in
human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even
death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted Him and
bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, [10] that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under
the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.

Commentary:

5. The Apostle's recommendation, "'Have this mind among yourselves,
which was in Christ Jesus, requires all Christians, so far as human
power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had
when He was offering Himself in sacrifice--sentiments of humility, of
adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the divine majesty. It requires
them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of
self-denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing
works of penance, detesting and expiating their sins. It requires us
all, in a word, to die mystically with Christ on the Cross, so that we
may say with the same Apostle: 'I have been crucified with Christ'
(Galatians 2:19)" ([Pope] Pius XII, "Mediator Dei", 22).

6-11. In what he says about Jesus Christ, the Apostle is not simply
proposing Him as a model for us to follow. Possibly transcribing an
early liturgical hymn (and) adding some touches of his own, he
is--under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit--giving a very profound
exposition of the nature of Christ and using the most sublime truths of
faith to show the way Christian virtues should be practiced.

This is one of the earliest New Testament texts to reveal the divinity
of Christ. The epistle was written around the year 62 (or perhaps
before that, around 55) and if we remember that the hymn of Philippians
2:6-11 may well have been in use prior to that date, the passage
clearly bears witness to the fact that Christians were proclaiming,
even in those very early years, that Jesus, born in Bethlehem,
crucified, died and buried, and risen from the dead, was truly both God
and man.

The hymn can be divided into three parts. The first (verses 6 and the
beginning of 7) refers to Christ's humbling Himself by becoming man.
The second (the end of verse 7 and verse 8) is the center of the whole
passage and proclaims the extreme to which His humility brought Him: as
man He obediently accepted death on the cross. The third part (verses
9-11) describes His exaltation in glory. Throughout St. Paul is
conscious of Jesus' divinity: He exists from all eternity. But he
centers his attention on His death on the cross as the supreme example
of humility. Christ's humiliation lay not in His becoming a man like
us and cloaking the glory of His divinity in His sacred humanity: it
also brought Him to lead a life of sacrifice and suffering which
reached its climax on the cross, where He was stripped of everything He
had, like a slave. However, now that He has fulfilled His mission, He
is made manifest again, clothed in all the glory that befits His divine
nature and which His human nature has merited.

The man-God, Jesus Christ, makes the cross the climax of His earthly
life; through it He enters into His glory as Lord and Messiah. The
Crucifixion puts the whole universe on the way to salvation.

Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful example of humility and obedience.
"We should learn from Jesus' attitude in these trials," Monsignor
Escriva reminds us. "During His life on earth He did not even want the
glory that belonged to Him. Though He had the right to be treated as
God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians 2:6-7).
And so the Christian knows that all glory is due God and that he must
not use the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own
interests or human ambitions.

"We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory
is in perfect balance with the greatness of His unique mission as the
beloved Son of God who becomes incarnate to save men" ("Christ Is
Passing By", 62).

6-7. "Though He was in the form of God" or "subsisting in the form of
God": "form" is the external aspect of something and manifests what it
is. When referring to God, who is invisible, His "form" cannot refer
to things visible to the senses; the "form of God" is a way of
referring to Godhead. The first thing that St. Paul makes clear is
that Jesus Christ is God, and was God before the Incarnation. As the
"Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed" professes it, "the only-begotten Son
of God, born of the Father before time began, light from light, true
God from true God."

"He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped": the
Greek word translated as "equality" does not directly refer to equality
of nature but rather the equality of rights and status. Christ was God
and He could not stop being God; therefore, He had a right to be
treated as God and to appear in all His glory. However, He did not
insist on this dignity of His as if it were a treasure which He
possessed and which was legally His: it was not something He clung to
and boasted about. And so He took "the form of a servant". He could
have become man without setting His glory aside--He could have appeared
as He did, momentarily, as the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1ff);
instead He chose to be like men, in all things but sin (cf. verse 7).
By becoming man in the way He did, He was able, as Isaiah prophesied in
the Song of the Servant of Yahweh, to bear our sorrows and to be
stricken (cf. Isaiah 53:4).

"He emptied Himself", He despoiled Himself: this is literally what the
Greek verb means. But Christ did not shed His divine nature; He simply
shed its glory, its aura; if He had not done so it would have shone out
through His human nature. From all eternity He exists as God and from
the moment of the Incarnation He began to be man. His self-emptying
lay not only in the fact that the Godhead united to Himself (that is,
to the person of the Son) something which was corporeal and finite (a
human nature), but also in the fact that this nature did not itself
manifest the divine glory, as it "ought" to have done. Christ could
not cease to be God, but He could temporarily renounce the exercise of
rights that belonged to Him as God--which was what He did.

Verses 6-8 bring the Christian's mind the contrast between Jesus and
Adam. The devil tempted Adam, a mere man, to "be like God" (Genesis
3:5). By trying to indulge this evil desire (pride is a disordered
desire for self-advancement) and by committing the sin of disobeying
God (cf. Genesis 3:6), Adam drew down the gravest misfortunes upon
himself and on his whole line (present potentially in him): this is
symbolized in the Genesis passage by his expulsion from Paradise and
by the physical world's rebellion against his lordship (cf. Genesis
3:16-24). Jesus Christ, on the contrary, who enjoyed divine glory
from all eternity, "emptied Himself": He chooses the way of humility,
the opposite way to Adam's (opposite, too, to the way previously
taken by the devil). Christ's obedience thereby makes up for the
disobedience of the first man; it puts mankind in a position to more
than recover the natural and supernatural gifts with which God endowed
human nature at the Creation. And so, after focusing on the amazing
mystery of Christ's humiliation or self-emptying ("kenosis" in Greek),
this hymn goes on joyously to celebrate Christ's exaltation after
death.

Christ's attitude in becoming man is, then, a wonderful example of
humility. "What is more humble", St. Gregory of Nyssa asks, "than the
King of all creation entering into communion with our poor nature? The
King of kings and Lord of lords clothes Himself with the form of our
enslavement; the Judge of the universe comes to pay tribute to the
princes of this world; the Lord of creation is born in a cave; He who
encompasses the world cannot find room in the inn...; the pure and
incorrupt one puts on the filthiness of our nature and experiences all
our needs, experiences even death itself" ("Oratio I In
Beatitudinibus").

This self-emptying is an example of God's infinite goodness in taking
the initiative to meet man: "Fill yourselves with wonder and gratitude
at such a mystery and learn from it. All the power, all the majesty,
all the beauty, all the infinite harmony of God, all His great and
immeasurable riches. God whole and entire was hidden for our benefit
in the humanity of Christ. The Almighty appears determined to eclipse
His glory for a time, so as to make it easy for His creatures to
approach their Redeemer." (St J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 111).

8. Jesus Christ became man "for us men and for our salvation", we
profess in the Creed. Everything He did in the course of His life had
a salvific value; His death on the cross represents the climax of His
redemptive work for, as St. Gregory of Nyssa says, "He did not
experience death due to the fact of being born; rather, He took birth
upon Himself in order to die" ("Oratio Catechetica Magna", 32).

Our Lord's obedience to the Father's saving plan, involving as it did
death on the cross, gives us the best of all lessons in humility. For,
in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, "obedience is the sign of true
humility" ("Commentary on Phil., ad loc."). In St. Paul's time death
by crucifixion was the most demeaning form of death, for it was
inflicted only on criminals. By becoming obedient "unto death, even
death on a cross", Jesus was being humble in the extreme. He was
perfectly within His rights to manifest Himself in all His divine
glory, but He chose instead the route leading to the most ignominious
of deaths.

His obedience, moreover, was not simply a matter of submitting to the
Father's will, for, as St. Paul points out, He made Himself obedient:
His obedience was active; He made the Father's salvific plans His own.
He chose voluntarily to give Himself up to crucifixion in order to
redeem mankind. "Debasing oneself when one is forced to do so is not
humility", St. John Chrysostom explains; "humility is present when one
debases oneself without being obliged to do so" ("Hom. on Phil., ad
loc.").

Christ's self-abasement and his obedience unto death reveals His love
for us, for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends" (John 15:13). His loving initiative merits a
loving response on our part: we should show that we desire to be one
with Him, for love "seeks union, identification with the beloved.
United to Christ, we will be drawn to imitate His life of dedication,
His unlimited love and His sacrifice unto death. Christ brings us face
to face with the ultimate choice: either we spend our life in selfish
isolation, or we devote ourselves and all our energies to the service
of others" (St J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 236).

9-11. "God highly exalted Him": the Greek compounds the notion of
exaltation, to indicate the immensity of His glorification. Our Lord
Himself foretold this when He said, "He who humbles himself will be
exalted" (Luke 14:11).

Christ's sacred humanity was glorified as a reward for His
humiliation. The Church's Magisterium teaches that Christ's
glorification affects his human nature only, for "in the form of God
the Son was equal to the Father, and between the Begetter and the
Only-begotten there was no difference in essence, no difference in
majesty; nor did the Word, through the mystery of incarnation, lose
anything which the Father might later return to Him as a gift" ([Pope]
St. Leo the Great, "Promisisse Me Memini", Chapter 8). Exaltation is
public manifestation of the glory which belongs to Christ's humanity by
virtue of its being joined to the divine person of the Word. This
union to the "form of a servant" (cf. verse 7) meant an immense act of
humility on the part of the Son, but it led to the exaltation of the
human nature He took on.

For the Jews the "name that is above every name" is the name of God
(Yahweh), which the Mosaic Law required to be held in particular awe.
Also, they regarded a name given to someone, especially if given by

God, as not just a way of referring to a person but as expressing
something that belonged to the very core of his personality.
Therefore, the statement that God "bestowed on Him the name which is
above every name" means that God the Father gave Christ's human nature
the capacity to manifest the glory of divinity which was His by virtue
of the hypostatic union: therefore, it is to be worshipped by the
entire universe.

St. Paul describes the glorification of Jesus Christ in terms similar
to those used by the prophet Daniel of the Son of Man: "To Him was
given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and
languages should serve His Kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed"
(Daniel 7:14). Christ's lordship extends to all created things.
Sacred Scripture usually speaks of "heaven and earth" when referring to
the entire created universe; by mentioning here the underworld it is
emphasizing that nothing escapes His dominion. Jesus Christ can here
be seen as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about the universal
sovereignty of Yahweh: "To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall
swear" (Isaiah 45:23). All created things come under His sway, and men
are duty-bound to accept the basic truth of Christian teaching: "Jesus
Christ is Lord." The Greek word "Kyrios" used here by St. Paul is the
word used by the Septuagint, the early Greek version of the Old
Testament, to translate the name of God ("Yahweh"). Therefore, this
sentence means "Jesus Christ is God."

The Christ proclaimed here as having been raised on high is the man-God
who was born and died for our sake, attaining the glory of His
exaltation after undergoing the humiliation of the cross. In this also
Christ sets us an example: we cannot attain the glory of Heaven unless
we understand the supernatural value of difficulties, ill-health and
suffering: these are manifestations of Christ's cross present in our
ordinary life. "We have to die to ourselves and be born again to a new
life. Jesus Christ obeyed in this way, even unto death on a cross
(Philippians 2:18); that is why God exalted Him. If we obey God's
will, the cross will mean our own resurrection and exaltation.
Christ's life will be fulfilled step by step in our own lives. It will
be said of us that we have tried to be good children of God, who went
about doing good in spite of our weakness and personal shortcomings, no
matter how many" (St J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 21).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: John 3:13-17

The Visit of Nicodemus (Continuation)

(Jesus said to Nicodemus,) [13] "No one has ascended into Heaven but He
who descended from Heaven, the Son of Man. [14] And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
[15] that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life." [16] For God
so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God sent the Son
into world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved
through Him.

Commentary:

13. This is a formal declaration of the divinity of Jesus. No one has
gone up into Heaven and, therefore, no one can have perfect knowledge
of God's secrets, except God Himself who became man and came down from
Heaven--Jesus, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of Man
foretold in the Old Testament (cf. Daniel 7:13), to whom has been given
eternal lordship over all peoples.

The Word does not stop being God on becoming man: even when He is on
earth as man, He is in Heaven as God. It is only after the
Resurrection and the Ascension that Christ is in Heaven as man also.

14-15. The bronze serpent which Moses set up on a pole was established
by God to cure those who had been bitten by the poisonous serpents in
the desert (cf. Numbers 21:8-9). Jesus compares this with His
crucifixion, to show the value of His being raised up on the cross:
those who look on Him with faith can obtain salvation. We could say
that the good thief was the first to experience the saving power of
Christ on the cross: he saw the crucified Jesus, the King of Israel,
the Messiah, and was immediately promised that he would be in Paradise
that very day (cf. Luke 23:39-43).

The Son of God took on our human nature to make known the hidden
mystery of God's own life (cf. Mark 4:11; John 1:18; 3:1-13; Ephesians
3:9) and to free from sin and death those who look at Him with faith
and love and who accept the cross of every day.

The faith of which our Lord speaks is not just intellectual acceptance
of the truths He has taught: it involves recognizing Him as Son of God
(cf. 1 John 5:1), sharing His very life (cf. John 1:12) and
surrendering ourselves out of love and therefore becoming like Him (cf.
John 10:27; 1 John 3:2). But this faith is a gift of God (cf. John
3:3, 5-8), and we should ask Him to strengthen it and increase it as
the Apostles did: Lord "increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5). While faith
is a supernatural, free gift, it is also a virtue, a good habit, which
a person can practise and thereby develop: so the Christian, who
already has the divine gift of faith, needs with the help of grace to
make explicit acts of faith in order to make this virtue grow.

16-21. These words, so charged with meaning, summarize how Christ's
death is the supreme sign of God's love for men (cf. the section on
charity in the "Introduction to the Gospel according to St. John": pp.
31ff above). "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son for
its salvation. All our religion is a revelation of God's kindness,
mercy and love for us. `God is love' (1 John 4:16), that is, love
poured forth unsparingly. All is summed up in this supreme truth,
which explains and illuminates everything. The story of Jesus must be
seen in this light. `(He) loved me, St. Paul writes. Each of us can
and must repeat it for himself--`He loved me, and gave Himself for me'
(Galatians 2:20)" (Paul VI, "Homily on Corpus Christi", 13 June 1976).

Christ's self-surrender is a pressing call to respond to His great love
for us: "If it is true that God has created us, that He has redeemed
us, that He loves us so much that He has given up His only-begotten Son
for us (John 3:16), that He waits for us--every day!--as eagerly as the
father of the prodigal son did (cf. Luke 15:11-32), how can we doubt
that He wants us to respond to Him with all love? The strange thing
would be not to talk to God, to draw away and forget Him, and busy
ourselves in activities which are closed to the constant promptings of
His grace" ([Blessed] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 251).

"Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is
incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not
revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not
experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate
intimately in it. This [...] is why Christ the Redeemer `fully reveals
man to himself'. If we may use the expression, this is the human
dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man
finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his
humanity.[...] The one who wishes to understand himself thoroughly
[...] must, with his unrest and uncertainty and even his weakness and
sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so
to speak, enter into Him with all his own self, he must `appropriate'
and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and
Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes
place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but
also of deep wonder at himself.

How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he `gained so
great a Redeemer', ("Roman Missal, Exultet" at Easter Vigil), and if
God `gave His only Son' in order that man `should not perish but have
eternal life'. [...]

`Increasingly contemplating the whole of Christ's mystery, the Church
knows with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took
place through the Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man
and given back meaning to his life in the world, a meaning that was
lost to a considerable extent because of sin. And for that reason, the
Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery, leading through the
Cross and death to Resurrection" (John Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis",
10).

Jesus demands that we have faith in Him as a first prerequisite to
sharing in His love. Faith brings us out of darkness into the light,
and sets us on the road to salvation. "He who does not believe is
condemned already" (verse 18).

"The words of Christ are at once words of judgment and grace, of life
and death. For it is only by putting to death that which is old that
we can come to newness of life. Now, although this refers primarily to
people, it is also true of various worldly goods which bear the mark
both of man's sin and the blessing of God.[...] No one is freed from
sin by himself or by his own efforts, no one is raised above himself or
completely delivered from his own weakness, solitude or slavery; all
have need of Christ, who is the model, master, liberator, savior, and
giver of life. Even in the secular history of mankind the Gospel has
acted as a leaven in the interests of liberty and progress, and it
always offers itself as a leaven with regard to brotherhood, unity and
peace" (Vatican II, "Ad Gentes", 8).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

FEAST OF THE DAY

The feast of the Holy Cross, also known as the Triumph of the Cross,
celebrates two separate events on this day. The first is the
celebration of the discovery of the Lord's Cross by Empress St.
Helena in the year 320. The second event celebrated this day is the
dedication of the basilicas at the sites of the Holy Sepulcher and at
Mt. Calvary in 335.

During the fourth century Empress St. Helena, mother of
Constantine, was inspired to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in
search of the Cross of the Savior. When she arrived in Jerusalem,
she had the Temple of Aphrodite razed, which thought to be built
over the tomb of the Lord and began excavation in search of the
means of his execution. The excavation found three crosses and the
True Cross of the Lord was recognized by the curing of a dying
woman when she touched it.

After the excavation was finished, the Emperor Constantine built the
basilica of the Holy Sepulcher on the site. The Cross almost
immediately began an object of veneration by the faithful. In
Jerusalem, a tradition was begun of reverencing the Cross of the
Lord each year on the celebration of Good Friday, the day we
remember the death of the Lord.

Today's feast has a long tradition in the East, but its celebration in
the West began during the seventh century. In the year 614, the
Cross was carried off by Persians. Fifteen years later, it was
recovered and the emperor decided to carry it back to the basilica in
Jerusalem. Legend has it that he was physically unable to begin his
journey until he removed his imperial garb and became a humble,
barefoot pilgrim.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

This is the wood of the Cross on which hung the Savior of the world.
R. Come let us adore
-From the Good Friday Liturgy

TODAY IN HISTORY

258 Martryrdom of St. Cyprian
891 Death of Pope Stephen VI
1523 Death of Pope Adrian VI

TODAY'S TIDBIT

Before the Liturgy was reformed by the Second Vatican Council, the
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday following the feast of the Holy
Cross were considered Ember Days and used to give thanks to God
for the first fruits of the harvest. This tradition is often recognized in
rural areas by the celebrating the Order for a Blessing on the
Occasion of Thanksgiving for the Harvest.

INTENTION FOR THE DAY

Please pray for all who depend on the land for their economic welfare.