Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross – Year C (2025)
Sunday, September 14, 2025
“There’s an old joke… two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountain resort, and one of them says, “Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.” The other one says, “Yeah, I know; and such small portions.” Well, that’s essentially how I feel about life – full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it’s all over much too quickly.” — Alvy Singer, from the 1977 film “Annie Hall,” using self-deprecating humor as he reflects on his life, grappling with meaning, psychological challenges, and questioning his worthiness of true happiness. Have you ever felt like complaining about things in your life, as the elderly ladies and Alvy did? The readings for this Sunday tell a tale of God’s people doing just that, and invite us to look at the cross, no longer a symbol of shame and death, but the supreme sign of God’s self-giving love that conquers sin, brings redemption and hope, and calls us to share in that love. They invite us to contemplate the mystery of salvation and to focus on the Cross of Jesus, the very source of our lives, where God’s justice, mercy, and love converge and are inseparably united.
The Old Testament Reading from the Book of Numbers chronicles Israel’s cry against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” — Numbers 21:5. In response, God sends poisonous serpents as punishment for their rebellion, then He commands Moses to fashion a bronze serpent so whoever is bitten may look to it and live. St. John writes, “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.” — John 3:14-15. Gazing at the Cross is not simply looking at it but trusting in God’s saving power.
Today’s New Testament Reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians beautifully illuminates the humility of Christ, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness… he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” — Philippians 2:6-8. Jesus willingly accepted death on the Cross, uniting God’s justice, mercy, and love. The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrated today, proclaims that Christ’s crucifixion on the Cross, once a symbol of humiliation, is now His triumph – the victory of love and redemption over sin and death.
The Gospel Reading cojoins the raising of the bronze serpent on a pole with the crucifixion of Christ, “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.” —John 13:14-15. It states that belief is a condition for salvation. Through the Cross, God’s love is revealed as justice fulfilled and mercy poured out.
The Cross of Jesus calls us to recognize our own “serpents” of pride, selfishness, and sin, and to turn to God in humility. To place our hope not in our own merit, but in Jesus’ crucifixion. Let us witness to the faith, remembering St. Paul’s call for every knee to bend, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord.