Words of Spirit and Life

Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 77:1-2. 34-38. R/ v.7; Philippians 2:6-11

John 3:13-17

Theme: THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS: THE HOLY CROSS IS

 TRIUMPHANT, VICTORIOUS AND GLORIOUS!

1. Today is the 24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Liturgical Year A, but today is the 14^th of September! That is why today we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross! We celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, because the Holy Cross is triumphant, victorious and glorious!

It is through the Holy Cross that Jesus Christ destroyed the devil, destroyed sin and death, and gave us His love, mercy, forgiveness and salvation!

The cross was an instrument of humiliation, torture and death, but through Jesus Christ it has become an instrument of salvation and resurrection! That is why we find the cross on top of tombstones and on top of crowns of kings! The readings today tell us about the Exaltation of the Holy Cross!        

2. The first reading tells us that the people of Israel grumbled against God and Moses, because there was no bread and water in the desert. At this God sent fiery serpents to bite them and many of them died. The people of Israel then pleaded with Moses to intercede with God for them and God asked Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, so that all who were bitten by the fiery serpents might look at the bronze serpent and live! The bronze serpent lifted up on a pole prefigures the lifting up of Jesus Christ on the cross for our salvation!   

3. The responsorial psalm follows the theme of the first reading. Thus the response:

“Never forget the deeds of the Lord.” (Ps 77:7; SM)

Israel forgot the deeds of the Lord and lost faith in the Lord! Israel forgot that the Lord created them and saved them, particularly through the Exodus from Egypt!

The responsorial psalm has four stanzas. The response (v. 7) and the first stanza (vv. 1&2) tell Israel not to forget the deeds of the Lord, but “to learn the lessons hidden in its tradition”! (CSB) The second, third and fourth stanzas (vv. 34-38) tell Israel that the Lord is ready “to forgive and begin anew”! (CSB) Thus the fourth stanza:

“Yet he who is full of compassion forgave their sin and spared them. So often he held back his anger when he might have stirred up his rage.” (Ps 77:38; SM)

4. The gospel today tells us about the Exaltation of the Holy Cross for our salvation! The gospel today tells us that the Son of Man must be lifted up on the cross as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that all who believe in him may have eternal life!

Yes, God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son into the world, so that all who believe in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life!

For God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved!

5. The second reading follows the theme of the gospel. The second reading also tells us about the “exaltation” of Jesus Christ as Savior of the world! The second reading tells us that Jesus Christ was divine, but he emptied himself and became a slave, that is, a servant, a suffering servant of God. (Is 52:13-53:12; “exaltation through humiliation”; NJB)

That is why he became man and became lower than man by accepting death, death on a cross; but God raised him up high and gave him a name above all other names so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bend, in heaven, on earth and in the underworld, and every tongue shall acclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father!

Again, God the Father exalted Jesus Christ as Savior of the world! (Ph 2:9-11; NJBC)  

6. Thus we acclaimed in the “Gospel Acclamation” today:

“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you; because by your cross you have redeemed the world.”

In fact we begin every station of the cross with this acclamation!

And on Good Friday at the “veneration of the cross” when the priest unveils and shows the cross three times, he sings/says three times:

“This is the wood of the cross, on which hung the Savior of the world.”

And we reply three times:

“Come, let us worship.”      

7. Today, we thank God our Father for his Son Jesus Christ, who through the cross saved us from sin and death, and we ask God our Father through his Son Jesus Christ to give us the Holy Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ, so that we may carry our crosses and follow his Son Jesus Christ to love and serve, to suffer and sacrifice, and to sanctify and save the world! Amen!    

Fr. Nicholas Ong, Holy Trinity Church, Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia.

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