Sept. 14th - Exaltation of the Cross

 Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The public veneration of the Cross of Christ originated in the fourth century, beginning with the miraculous discovery of the cross on September 14, 326, by Saint Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine. Out of an aversion to Christianity, heathens had done all in their power to conceal the place where it lay, and where Jesus was buried. They heaped upon His sepulcher a great quantity of stones and rubbish, besides building a temple to Venus. They also erected a statue to Jupiter in the place where Jesus rose from the dead.

The pious empress ordered the profane building to be pulled down, the statues to be broken in pieces, and the rubbish to be removed; and upon digging to a great depth, they discovered the Holy Sepulcher, and near it three crosses; also the nails which had pierced our Savior’s body, and the title which had been affixed to his cross. By this discovery they understood that one of the three crosses was that of Jesus and that the other two belonged to the two who were crucified with Jesus. The title was found separate from the cross.

The three crosses were carried in procession to the bed of a woman, who was at the point of death. The touch of the first two had no effect, but when the woman was touched, with the last Cross, the woman suddenly got better. St. Helena wanted to check for herself if this was the True Cross, so she asked that a man, who was already dead and buried, be taken to the Cross. And when he came in contact with the Cross, he became alive.

St. Andrew Crete said, “The cross is something wonderfully great and honorable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation– very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honorable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it He freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world. The cross is called Christ’s glory; it is saluted as His triumph.”

And let us not forget, that His Mother Mary stood beneath Her Son’s Cross. May we contemplate in our heart what She endured gazing upon Her crucified Son.