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Commentary on the Gospel for September 14, 2024
Dear friend,
Exaltation of the Cross? What does this mean? Do we exalt a Persian torture device that was used during the Roman Empire as punishment for subversives and revolutionaries? An instrument that caused the most brutal of deaths and agonies is venerated by Christians? What’s glorious about a cross?
Yes, we exalt it because on it the greatest act of love took place: the Son of God gave his life for us. What does this mean? Why did Jesus have to die in this way? It means that in his incarnation, the Father wanted Jesus to go through the hardest part of the human condition. Jesus dies in this way so that every human being who experiences human limitation – physical or psychological pain, that is, abandonment, suffering, loneliness in its maximum expression, illness, helplessness, agony, mockery, physical violence, harassment… – can find in these harsh experiences of life Jesus who is with him, who accompanies him and comforts him in these tunnels of life. That is to say, in the worst that can happen to me, I can also meet Jesus Christ and feel his strength and his comfort because He went through these experiences to fill them with his presence. Because if the encounter with Jesus only happened – which it does – in the human experiences of love, beauty, unity, peace…, in the most beautiful moments of life, the Son of Man would have nothing to say in the face of the problem of evil and suffering. And on the cross, Jesus tells us: you are not alone, I am with you and I help you carry your sufferings. And this happens through many mediations and languages through which the Holy Spirit acts, as He usually does. Don’t you know people who, in the face of a cross-like situation such as cancer, a loss, etc., have faced it with supernatural strength and peace thanks to their faith?
How well today’s Liturgy of the Word captures this gesture of Jesus’ love in the letter to the Philippians: “…he emptied himself… he humbled himself and became obedient to death… Therefore God exalted him to the highest place… so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…” And this gesture of love from the Father in the Gospel of John that is proclaimed today: “…God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Jesus does not free us from the cross, but he helps us carry it. And, what can I say, I prefer to feel very loved and accompanied in the crosses of my life, because the worst that can happen to us is to live them in solitude. That is why we Christians are called to practice solidarity and mercy, so that no one in their experience of pain feels alone. We are called to be “Christs” for others because others are “Christ” for me. In short, we exalt the cross because in it we also encounter Jesus. Or, in other words, paraphrasing St. Paul, nothing will separate us from the love of God, not even the harshest experiences of life.
In your prayer to God, ask the Lord for the grace to meet Him in the situations of life that most rob you of your inner peace.
Your brother in the faith,