September 14, 2025
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Lectionary: 638
Reading 1
With their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!"
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
"We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us."
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 at it, they will live."
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm
78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38
R. (see 7b) Do not forget the works of the Lord!
Hearken, my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable,
I will utter mysteries from of old.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
While he slew them they sought him
and inquired after God again,
Remembering that God was their rock
and the Most High God, their redeemer.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
But they flattered him with their mouths
and lied to him with their tongues,
Though their hearts were not steadfast toward him,
nor were they faithful to his covenant.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
But he, being merciful, forgave their sin
and destroyed them not;
Often he turned back his anger
and let none of his wrath be roused.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
Reading 2
Brothers and sisters:
Christ Jesus, 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;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you,
because by your Cross you have redeemed the world.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
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 so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might 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.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091425.cfm
Commentary on
Numbers 21:4-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17
The Gospel reading is from John. He compares Jesus’ being
lifted up on the Cross to the incident in the Book of Numbers (one of today’s
First Readings), where a plague of serpents is sent against the Israelites
because of their constant complaining against God. When they beg Moses for
help, God tells him to put an image of a serpent on a pole. All those who look
at the bronze serpent would be healed.
In a much more radical way, Jesus is also lifted up so:
…that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
And this life comes because Jesus’ giving of his life on the
Cross is a sign of his Father’s love for each and every one of us. For, as
Jesus will tell his disciples at the Last Supper:
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life
for one’s friends. (John 15:13)
And in today’s reading he also says:
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to
condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.
The word “Exaltation” in the name of today’s feast means a
‘lifting up’, and in the Gospel of John, Jesus says that he, being “lifted up”
will draw all peoples to himself. This ‘lifting up’ refers not only to Jesus’
being physically raised on the Cross. In John’s presentation of the Paschal
Mystery, Jesus dies on the Cross, passes to new life (Resurrection), returns to
the Father (Ascension), and breathes forth the Spirit (Pentecost). Jesus is
totally ‘exalted’ on the Cross.
The Second Reading is from the Letter of Paul to the
Philippians and contains the famous kenosis hymn about
Jesus. Kenosis means an ‘emptying’. Jesus was the Incarnate
Son of God and shared the divinity with his Father and the Spirit on an equal
level. Yet, in order to bring us salvation and life without end, Jesus:
…emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.
He did this in service to us. He adopted our human condition
totally and he even went lower than this by submitting to one of the most
terrible forms of death, death by crucifixion. And all of this was to help us
understand the extent of his Father’s love for each one of us.
Because of this self-giving and self-emptying:
Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,
so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Hence, the Cross is a much esteemed symbol for Christians
everywhere and a way by which they express their faith. We place a cross in our
churches and homes, in the classrooms of our schools and in other Christian
institutions. Many wear a cross as part of their dress.
We remember Jesus’ words to his followers:
…whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not
worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their
life for my sake will find it. (Matt 10:38-39)
As we often sing after the Consecration during the
Eucharist:
Dying, you destroyed our death; rising you restored our
life.
Comments Off
https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/f0914r/
Sunday,
September 14, 2025
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Opening Prayer
Oh Father who wanted to save man by the
Cross of Christ, Your Son, grant to us who have known on earth His mystery of
love, to enjoy in Heaven the fruits of His redemption. We ask this through
Christ our Lord.
LECTIO
Gospel Reading – John 3: 13-17:
Jesus said to Nicodemus: "No one
has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of
Man. 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 so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him might not perish but might 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.
MEDITATIO
a) Key for the reading:
The
text for today’s Liturgy has been taken from the Feast of the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross. It should not surprise us that the passage chosen for this
celebration forms part of the fourth Gospel, because, it is precisely this
Gospel which presents the mystery of the cross of the Lord as the exaltation.
This is clear from the beginning of the Gospel: “as Moses lifted up the snake
in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up” (Jn 3: 14; Dan 7: 13). John
explains the mystery of the
Incarnate Word in the paradoxical
movement of the descent-ascent (Jn 1: 14, 18; 3: 13). In fact, it is this
mystery which offers the key for the reading in order to understand the
evolution of the identity and of the mission of the passus et gloriosus (suffering and glorious) of Jesus Christ, and
that we may well say that this is not only valid for the text of John. The
Letter to the Ephesians, for example, uses this paradoxical movement to explain
the mystery of Christ: “Now, when it says, ‘He went up’, it must mean that He
had gone down to the deepest levels of the earth” (Eph 4: 9).
Jesus is the Son of God who becoming Son
of man (Jn 3: 13) makes known to us the mysteries of God (Jn 1:18). He alone
can do this, in so far as He alone has seen the Father (Jn 6: 46). We can say
that the mystery of the Word who descends from Heaven responds to the yearning of
the prophets: who will go up to heaven to reveal this mystery to us? (cf. Deut
30: 12; Prov 30: 4). The fourth Gospel is full of references to the mystery of
He who “is from Heaven” (1 Cor 15: 47). The following are some quotations or
references: Jn 6: 33, 38,51, 62; 8: 42; 16: 28-30; 17: 5.
The
exaltation of Jesus is precisely in His descent to come to us, unto death, and
death on the Cross, on which He was lifted up like the serpent in the desert,
which, “anybody… who looked at it would survive” (Num 21: 7-9; Zech 12: 10).
John reminds us in the scene of the death of Jesus Christ being lifted up:
“They will look to the one whom they have pierced” (Jn 19: 37). In the context
of the fourth Gospel, “to turn and look” means “to know,” “to understand,” “to see.”
Frequently,
in John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about His being lifted up: “When you have lifted
up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He” (Jn 8: 28); “when I am
lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all peoples to Myself. By these words He
indicated the kind of death He would die” (Jn 12: 32-33). In the synoptics also
Jesus announces to His disciples the mystery of His condemnation to death on
the cross (see Mt 20: 27-29; Mk 10: 32-34; Lk 18: 31-33). In fact, Christ had
“to suffer all that to enter into His glory” (Lk 24: 26).
This mystery reveals the great love
which God has for us. He is the Son given to us,
“so that anyone who believes in Him will
not be lost, but will have eternal life,” this Son whom we have rejected and
crucified. But precisely in this rejection on our part, God has manifested
Himself to us His fidelity and His love which does not stop before the hardness
of our heart. And even in spite of our rejection and our contempt He gives us
salvation (cf. Acts 4: 27-28), remaining firm in fulfilling His plan of mercy:
God, in fact, has not sent His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in
order that the world may be saved through Him.” b) A few questions:
•
What struck you in the Gospel?
•
What does the exaltation of Christ and of His
cross mean for you?
•
What consequences does this paradoxical movement
of descent-ascent imply in the living out of faith?
ORATIO
Psalm 77 (1-2, 34-38)
My people, listen to My teaching, pay
attention to what I say. I will speak to you in a parable, unfold the mysteries
of the past.
Whenever He slaughtered them, they began
to seek Him; they turned back and looked eagerly for Him, recalling that God
was their rock, God the Most High, their redeemer.
They tried to flatter Him with their
mouths; their tongues were deceitful towards Him. Their hearts were not loyal
to Him; they were not faithful to His covenant.
But in His compassion, He forgave their
guilt instead of killing them, time and again repressing His anger instead of
rousing His full wrath.
CONTEMPLATIO
"Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the
Father." (Phil 2: 11)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét