In this diocese there is a religious order of sisters who have made a great contribution to the mission of the Church in teaching and working in parishes for many, many years. Les filles de la Croix (daughters of the Cross) are a diocesan order who have run schools in all three counties of the Diocese and still have houses in Cornwall and Devon; many will acknowledge a great debt of gratitude for their work. The motto of the order is “Ave Crux Spes unica.” (Hail O Cross, our only hope). That motto expresses a profound Catholic truth.
In each of the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus three times predicts his Passion and death: “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise.” (Mk 8:31 (see also 9:31, 10;33). That prediction does not appear in John’s gospel in that form. Instead John records three times how Jesus predicts that the Son will “be lifted up”: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (12:32 – see also 3:14, 8:28).
In the book of Numbers the Hebrews in the desert during the Exodus complain against Moses, and God decides to chastise them for their presumption. He sends fiery serpents to bite them. The situation of the Israelites in the desert is perilous – through their sin they are now facing death, and there is no way they can save themselves from the fiery serpents. It requires the intervention of God to bring salvation by telling Moses to make a bronze serpent and raise it up high for the people to gaze on, and that will save them. In John’s gospel this particular incident is universalised in Jesus – all people are lost through sin, and incapable of saving themselves. God acts in Jesus who is raised up on the cross for all people to gaze on and be saved.
“For God sent his son into the world . . . so that through him the world might be saved.”
For John the crucifixion of Jesus is, of course, a terrible thing, and yet John knows that it was through Jesus’ death on the Cross that salvation of humanity was achieved, and so it is, in some ways, also a triumph. Many of the early Christian theologians and poets spoke of Jesus reigning as King from the Tree of the Cross.
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross therefore allows us to ponder the mystery of our salvation achieved by Jesus on the Cross. That is expressed when we venerate the Cross on Good Friday (the only time in the liturgy when we genuflect to anything other than the Blessed Sacrament);and why our homes often have crosses hung in them. As the motto of the Sisters proclaims: “Hail O Cross, our only Hope.”
O Cross,
you are the glorious sign of our victory.
Through your power may we share in the triumph of Christ Jesus.
Amen
(collect for the Feast)
By Monsignor Robert Draper