Alchemists wanted to take cheap metal and turn it into gold. Though they may have tricked some people, their efforts failed. There is no way to change a molecule of tin, for example, into a molecule of gold. Today we celebrate the fact that God can do much more than change tin to gold, he can change suffering and death into life.
The feast is the “Exaltation of the Holy Cross.” The Church has us gaze upon the cross and receive from it life.
In the first reading (Numbers 21:4-9) we read the story of the Israelites being punished for their sins by deadly serpents. In his mercy God created a way for them to be healed.
“So, Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if any who have been bitten look to it, they will live.’ Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and when anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent he lived.”
God took the instrument of death, the saraph, and made it a channel of life. It seems more fitting that God would have taken a beautiful flower and put it in a vase. Instead, he took the most frightening creature and made it into a source of life.
In the second reading (Philippians 2:6-11), we read about God’s great act of humility as seen in Jesus.
“…though he was in the form of God…he emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave…becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”
Though Jesus he was God, he surrendered to the worst of all curses, death –even death by crucifixion. And just as the saraph was raised on a pole to give life, Jesus was hung upon a pole to give eternal life. Once again, the instrument of death became an unending fountain of life for those who give their lives to Jesus.
Finally, the gospel (John 3:13-17).
“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life…For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
When Jesus was lifted up on the cross, he began the process of drawing all people to himself. His death broke the final grip that Satan had on the world. By submitting to effects of sin, Jesus releases us all from sin and pours out the power of eternal life into our hearts.
Gazing upon the cross, we begin to understand the mystery of suffering—why God allows “bad things to happen to good people.” In suffering with Jesus, we die to one form of life and are raised to a higher form of life. What is by nature bad, becomes a way for God to release the gift of grace to the world.
Each of us, insofar as we belong to Jesus, experience suffering. Sometimes this comes in the form of direct persecution for our faith. Sometimes it comes through the daily struggles against temptation and in enduring the trials of life. We are reminded today that God, through the cross of Jesus, gives power to change our suffering into new life. When we unite our suffering to Jesus’, it is changed into intercessory prayer for others.
“We adore thee, O Christ, and we bless thee, because by they Cross, you have redeemed the world.”
