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This feast is celebrated by several Christian churches under a variety of titles, all stemming from the early days of Christianity. Around 325 St Helena, the mother of Emperor Constatine, is believed through a miraculous event to have determined the identity of the Cross upon which Jesus Christ suffered to redeem humanity. Her son built a basilica over the sepulcher where Jesus had been laid, which was dedicated on September 13th, 335 AD and the following day the cross was presented for veneration. The feast of the Holy Cross became associated with this presentation and has been celebrated since the 7th century.
This feast highlights an interesting phenomenon among Christians. The horrible instrument that the Romans used to torture and painfully put the worst of criminals to death gradually became for Christians a symbol of salvation, a token of Christ's love for us. We see the degradation associated with crucifixion in St Paul's statement to the Philippians that Jesus "humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross." Phil 2:8 For a devout Jew there was no form of execution more humiliating than being publicly stripped naked and subjected to excruciating torment and death while people stood around and jeered.
Instead of hating the instrument of our Lord's passion & death, St Paul seems to have been drawn toward it with reverence, and this strange attitude was adopted by the earl Christians. It had become in St Paul's mind the sign of our salvation. In this vein, St Paul wrote to the people of Corinth: "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Cor 1:18 And he cautioned: "... lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." 1 Cor 1:17 For Paul believed and taught that it was through the instrumentation of the cross that Jesus saved us. What a strange new teaching. That an instrument of malice should be considered a conduit of divine grace. St Paul goes so far as to state that "far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ..." Gal 6:14
St. Paul summed up his teaching admirably in his letter to the Colossians: "For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." Col 1:10,20
I invite you to spend a few minutes this September 13/14 meditating on the way in which Jesus changed this instrument of man's malice into an instrument of divine love.
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Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This week's column comes from Rev. Fr. Joseph Orr of Holy Spirit Catholic Parish, Lock Haven.