“Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.” 

 

These words, taken from the response to the Mystery of Faith at Mass, acknowledge the cross as the instrument of Jesus’s offering of Himself for our sins. Occurring immediately after the consecration of the bread and wine, changing them into the Body and Blood of Jesus, we are reminded that the cross is a foundational element of our faith.

 

We have an indication of this recognition of the centrality of the cross in the Gospel from the earliest days of the Church. In his first letter to the Corinthians St. Paul wrote, “I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor: 2-2).

 

Each year, on Sept. 14, the Church observes the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. In so doing, we are reminded of the astonishing humility of the Son of God. Once more it is St. Paul who reminds us that Jesus, “did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2: 6-8).

 

Even at the distance in time of more than 2,000 years, we can understand the human horror of the cross. The Romans made use of it as a long, drawn-out and excruciating means of inflicting death. Even more, the cross was used in a very public manner, placed before the eyes of all. The agony of the one crucified was therefore shared by all. It served as a display of Roman cruelty and power and a warning to others not to challenge Roman authority.

 

Jesus’s suffering and death on the cross has always been a challenge to faith. Why, it can be asked, should the all powerful God submit not simply to death but to such a humiliating and terrible end? Humanly it makes no sense.

 

But with faith, we understand that the cross demonstrates how much Jesus loves each of us. Except for Mary, every one of us is trapped by sin and condemned to death. But Jesus, on the cross, substituted Himself and His death for ours. He has truly “set us free.” For each of us, that sacrifice is personal and the hope it gives, unending.

 

We see, as well, the power of God. He took the cross and transformed it from an instrument of evil and sin into a means and an enduring symbol of His plan to conquer sin and death. That is why our feast this week is truly the Exaltation of the Cross.

 

In this year of Eucharistic revival, we must recognize the intimate connection between the Eucharist and the cross. At the Last Supper the Lord spoke of His body being “given up” and his blood “poured out.” He linked the Eucharist to His sacrifice on Calvary. In telling His apostles to do this in memory of Him, He made the Eucharist to be the representation in every age of the sacrifice of the cross.

 

Our churches are adorned with the cross carrying the body of Jesus. Our homes should likewise have a crucifix prominently displayed. The cross is our pride and our glory. “Lord, by your cross and resurrection, You have set us free. You are the savior of the world!”