Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 14, 2024 - Sept. 14: The Exaltation of the Cross
[Num 21:4b-9; Phil 2:6-11; John 3:13-17]Moses, accordingly, made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by s serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. [Numbers] "....he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. [Philippians] 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. [John]
The serpent on a pole (the "caduceus") has become a universal symbol of health care. The biblical roots may have been in Middle Eastern culture so that Moses' actions would not have seemed too strange to a Jewish person. Jesus picks up on this story in his dialogue with Nicodemus in the Gospel According to John in speaking of his being "lifted up" which Christian interpretation came to mean the cross on which Jesus' died but with the broader sense of the salvific effect of the instrument itself. The recovery of "the true cross" in Jerusalem by St. Helena, mother of Constantine gave rise to this celebration.
The cross took awhile to become the universal symbol of Christianity. The earliest Christians were reluctant to display the image since it was something associated with the worst criminals in the Roman Empire. But St. Paul's description in the second scripture for today, along with other references both in his letters and the gospels gradually won out. St. Paul speaks of Jesus becoming "obedient to death, even death on a cross." And popular parlance uses the expression, "That's my cross to bear!" which itself comes from the gospel admonition to a disciple that it is necessary daily to take up one's cross and follow Jesus. The popular devotion of the Stations of the Cross has reinforced the image for centuries.
This feast day offers us the opportunity to pray for all those who suffer from illness, war, oppression or other sorrows. We are invited to join our own sufferings to those of Jesus for others who suffer. An instrument of death becomes an instrument of life. AMEN