September 14, 2025 – Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Reflection by Rev. Leonard N. Peterson
You can easily picture the scene. A parade down Main Street of “Any Town, USA” to honor the local Medal of Honor winner. There she sits, dressed in her military uniform, riding atop the back seat of a shiny convertible, festooned with red, white, and blue, smiling and waving to the crowds at the curbside. We could say that, for a time, she is being “exalted.”
Today’s Feast gives us a spiritual time to honor the instrument of our salvation, the Holy Cross on which Our Savior died for our salvation. Such exaltation would have shocked our earlier sisters and brothers in the early Church. It took a few centuries before they would ever think of the Cross as deserving of praise, much less in a place of honor in a church. They knew it only as the instrument of cruel Roman punishment for criminals.
Just for the sake of understanding, consider if Christ came to earth in modern times and was executed in the electric chair. It would take a lot of convincing to get us to decorate our churches with replicas of that chair. Or sewn on to priestly vestments!
Over time, the Church began to see that the once awful item was really the greatest sign of God’s love. An instrument of His decision to save us from eternal damnation. After all, our human ancestors, Adam and Eve, had chosen through weakness to sin the Paradise Garden away and hear the clang of shutting gates behind them as they left. When the onlookers at Calvary heard the bang of hammers on nails thrust through the divine Hands and Feet, they had no idea that this was necessary to save them and all of us. With time and prayer, they would learn what we know now.
Today is a good day to ask you: do you have a crucifix on display in your home? Does it hang on the first floor, where visitors can see it? In other words, do you personally “exalt” the cross as the truest sign of love ever given?
You see, this is one easy way to evangelize, that is, spread the gospel in the world. It takes very little effort. We must be more adept at making clear to the apathetic world we live in that faith in Christ and thanks to His inestimable love is the main reason we have for living, for getting up from sleep each new morning with a trustful outlook. In other words, we need to remember what Steven Covey, the gifted motivational speaker once said, namely that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” That way, we can one day join the parade in the new Paradise, with no fear that the parade will pass us by.
Happy 70th Birthday, Pope Leo XIV, and God grant you many more!
Rev. Peterson’s Reading & Gospel Summary
Reading I: Numbers 21: 4b-9
The Lord prescribes an antidote to the venomous snake attacks on the people. He tells Moses to mount a bronze serpent to a pole and tell the people to look at it and be healed. An allegory about the Cross of Christ whereby sinners who look upon it with faith will be spared the sting of death.
Reading II: Philippians 2: 6-11
This is probably an early Christian hymn. It follows the story line of Christ’s mission and sets Him forth as the model of Christian living.
The Gospel: John 3: 13-17
Jesus sees the relic from Moses’ time of the bronze serpent mounted to save the Israelites as an image of His crucifixion meant to save mankind from sin and bring healing to a rebellious world.