Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Lectionary:
638
With their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up fromEgypt
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!"
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up from
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 Ps 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!
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 Phil 2:6-11
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.
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.
Gospel Jn 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.
"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.
Meditation: "So must the Son of Man be lifted
up"
Do you know the healing power of
the cross of Christ? Jesus explained to Nicodemus the necessity of his
impending crucifixion and resurrection by analogy with Moses and the bronze
serpent in the desert.When the people of Israel were afflicted with serpents in
the wilderness because of their rebellion and sin, God instructed Moses: "Make
a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he
sees it, shall live" (Numbers 21:8). The bronze serpent points to the
cross of Christ which defeats sin and death and obtains everlasting life for
those who believe in Jesus and in his victory on the cross. The result of Jesus
"being lifted up on the cross" and his rising and exaltation to the
Father's right hand in heaven, is our "new birth in the Spirit" and
adoption as sons and daughters of God. God not only redeems us, but he fills us
with his own divine life and power that we might share in his glory.There is no greater proof of God's love for his fallen creatures. "To ransom a slave God gave his Son" (an ancient prayer from the Easter vigil liturgy). God sent his Son to free us from the worst of tyrannies – slavery to sin and the curse of death. Jesus' sacrificial death was an act of total love in self-giving. Jesus gave himself completely out of love for his Father. And he willing layed down his life out of selfless love for our sake and for our salvation. His death on the cross was both a total offering to God and the perfect sacrifice of atonement for our sin and the sin of the world.
John tells us that God's love has no bounds or limits (John 3:16). His love is not limited to one people or a few chosen friends. His love is limitless because it embraces the whole world and every individual created in "his image and likeness". God is a persistent loving Father who cannot rest until all of his wandering children have returned home to him.
God's love has been poured into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Do you allow God's love to purify your heart and the way your treat others? Do you allow God's love to transform your mind and the way you think of others? Do you allow God's love to conquer every unruly passion and addiction that would enslave you to sin and harmful behavior? The Holy Spirit gives us his seven-fold gifts of wisdom and understanding, right judgment and courage, knowledge and reverence for God and his ways, and a holy fear in God's presence (see Isaiah 11) that we may live God's way of life and serve in the power and strength of his enduring love and mercy. Do you thirst for new life in the Spirit?
"Lord Jesus Christ, your death brought life for us. Fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may walk in freedom and joy as a child of God and as an heir with Christ of an eternal inheritance."
 God So Loves Me |
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Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
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Father Patrick Butler, LC Listen to podcast version here. Jesus said to Nicodemus: "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Introductory Prayer: Your word in the Gospel reveals to me the beauty of the mystery of the Cross. I open myself now to you with a believing heart. Your love for humanity is so present in what you say. You give me hope that the world can be changed by your message of love. I want to be more like you, a lover of the Father, a lover of my brothers and sisters to the point of giving my life for them. Petition: Lord, exalt the cross in my mind and my heart, that I might see it as an instrument of love. 1. Jesus’ Identity: Nicodemus comes to Jesus to find out who this miracle worker is. Jesus tells him that he is the Son of Man and God’s Son. He has come down from heaven and will return there. Now that he has identified himself, he has gotten Nicodemus’ attention and mine. His answer to the first question does not satisfy us because it has brought up several other questions. How can he claim to be the Son of God when there is but one God? If he is truly God’s Son, why has he come down to earth? What does he want or expect from me? 2. A Savior Greater Than Moses: Moses had, at God’s command, led 3. The Degree of God’s Love: How much does the Father love me? If we could measure love on a thermometer, God’s infinite love would send the mercury out the end. His love is boundless. What would he withhold from me if he has already given his son to save me? My sentiments upon contemplating the immensity of God’s love for me should be gratitude, praise and a reciprocating love towards him. Conversation with Christ: Lord, I am moved when I discover how much you love me. You came down from heaven, becoming the Son of Man so that I could know, love and imitate you. You loved me to the extreme of offering yourself up on the cross to save me from sin and death. I want to love you in return to the point of giving my life for you. Resolution: I will contemplate the cross as a symbol of love, making it a symbol that says something to me whenever I see it. I will try to bear my cross today with love. |
Do
not forget the works of the Lord!
The cross
symbolises the victory of Jesus over the power of evil and he became the
instrument of our redemption.These few words point to the heart of what today’s readings are about. From the Old Testament we are told that the Israelites gave Moses and God a really hard time. God responded by sending serpents among them and many were bitten. Moses speaks up for them and God listens. Moses responds to God and makes a bronze serpent and anyone bitten by a serpent would look at the bronze serpent and be saved.
Lord, we pray for the grace to believe.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
A VISION FOR COMMUNITY
Then, in my
dreams of the Last Day,
Our Lord will
come back and reward us for having, by his grace, straightened the world out,
and having the poor competent and the rich thoughtful and the well-protected
kindly and generous and involved, and the educated enthralled with the kingdom
of God, and the spiritual able to perceive him in such a way as to make him
visible to us.
These are the
words of a Jesuit priest who died in a very poor, black area of Washington DC
From A Canopy
of Stars: Some Reflections for the Journey by Fr Christopher Gleeson SJ [David
Lovell Publishing 2003]
MINUTE
MEDITATIONS
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Keep
Smiling
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Remember that, even if you have serious health
issues, your choices can have a profound effect on how you’ll live—even on
how long you’ll live. Do what you can today that will make a positive impact.
Much of the world spins far beyond our control, but we can control something—ourselves.
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September 14
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Early in the fourth century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to
To this day the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica's dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into
Comment:
The cross is today the universal image of Christian belief. Countless generations of artists have turned it into a thing of beauty to be carried in procession or worn as jewelry. To the eyes of the first Christians, it had no beauty. It stood outside too many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defiedRome Constantine
The cross is today the universal image of Christian belief. Countless generations of artists have turned it into a thing of beauty to be carried in procession or worn as jewelry. To the eyes of the first Christians, it had no beauty. It stood outside too many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defied
Quote:
"How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness;Paradise , not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord,
like a great warrior, was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed
thereby our wounds. A tree has destroyed us, a tree now brought us life"
(Theodore of Studios).
"How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness;
St. Notburga*
Feastday:
September 14
Patron
servants and peasants
1265 - 1313
Patroness of
poor peasants and servants in the Tyrol . Born
in Rattenberg, in the Tyrol , she was the
daughter of peasants. At eighteen she became a servant in the household of
Count Henry of Rattenberg When Notburga repeatedly gave food to the poor, she
was dismissed by Count Henry’s wife, Ottilia, and took up a position as a
servant to a humble farmer. Meanwhile, Henry suffering a run of misfortune and
setbacks, wasted no time restoring Notburga to her post after his wife died.
Notburga remained his housekeeper for the rest of her life, and was famous for
her miracles and concern for the poor.
*Saint Notburga (c. 1265 – September 16, 1313), also
known as Notburga of
Rattenberg or Notburga of Eben, was
anAustrian saint from modern Tyrol .
LECTIO: THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS - JN.
3,13-17
Lectio:
Friday, September 14,
2012
Anyone who believes in Jesus has eternal life.
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.
1. LECTIO
Jesus said to Nicodemus: 'No one has gone up
to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man; as Moses
lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up so that
everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.
For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.
2. MEDITATIO
a) Key for the reading:
The text proposed to us by the 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; Dn 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 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” (Ef 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. Dt
30, 12; Pr 30, 4). The fourth Gospel is over fool of references to the mystery
of he who “is from Heaven” (1 Co 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, up to death, and the death on the Cross, on which he was
lifted up like the serpent in the desert, which, “anybody… who looked at it
would survive” (Nm 21,7-9; Zc 12,10). John reminds us in the scene of the death
of Jesus of 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:
i) What struck you in the Gospel?
ii) What does the exaltation of Christ and of his cross mean for you?
iii) What consequences does this paradoxical movement of descent-ascent imply in the living out of faith?
ii) What does the exaltation of Christ and of his cross mean for you?
iii) What consequences does this paradoxical movement of descent-ascent imply in the living out of faith?
3. 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 poetry,
unfold the mysteries of the past.
pay attention to what I say.
I will speak to you in poetry,
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 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 hoodwink him with their mouths,
their tongues were deceitful towards him;
their hearts were not loyal to him,
they were not faithful to his covenant.
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.
instead of killing them,
time and again repressing his anger
instead of rousing his full wrath.
4. CONTEMPLATIO
"Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2,11)
to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2,11)
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