Our faith
catholicnewsherald.com | September 10, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD
2
Exaltation of the Holy Cross Pope Francis
Through baptism, all Christians are united and equal in Christ
T
here is no place for discrimination or divisive distinctions among people who believe in Christ, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience. That everyone is made new and equal in Christ overcomes all ethnic, economic and social differences, even between the two sexes, “establishing an equality between man and woman which was revolutionary at the time and which needs to be reaffirmed even today,” he said Sept. 8 to those gathered in the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican. “How many times we hear expressions that denigrate women,” he said, adding that even today women experience a kind of slavery in which “women do not have the same opportunities as men.” The pope continued his series of talks on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians by looking at what faith in Christ brings. With faith and baptism, people become new creatures, “clothed” with Christ and children of God in Christ, the apostle writes. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The pope said this shows how “baptism, therefore, is not merely an external rite. Those who receive it are transformed deep within, in their inmost being, and possess new life” with an identity that is so new “that it prevails over the differences that exist on the ethnic-religious level” and social and economic levels. St. Paul’s teaching was “shocking” and “revolutionary” at a time when distinctions, for example, between slaves and free citizens “was vital in ancient society,” he said. “By law, free citizens enjoyed all rights, while the human dignity of slaves was not even recognized.” The same thing is happening to many people in the world today, “who do not have the right to eat, who do not have the right to education, who do not have the right to work. They are the new slaves. They are the ones who live on the margins, who are exploited by everyone” and whose human dignity is denied, he said. “Equality in Christ overcomes the social differences between the two sexes, establishing an equality between man and woman,” he said, calling for a reaffirmation of this truth. Therefore, “it is decisive even for all of us today to rediscover the beauty of being children of God, to be brothers and sisters among ourselves, because we have been united in Christ, who redeemed us,” he said. Differences and conflicts caused by separation “should not exist among believers in Christ,” he said.
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on Sept. 14 celebrates two historical events: the discovery of the True Cross by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, in 320 under the temple of Venus in Jerusalem, and the dedication in 335 of the basilica and shrine built on Calvary by Constantine, which mark the site of Jesus’ crucifixion. The basilica, named the Martyrium, and the shrine, named the Calvarium, were destroyed by the Persians in 614. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre which now stands on the site was built by the crusaders in 1149. Early in the fourth century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She razed the Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher over the tomb. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman. The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus’ head: Then “all the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on.” 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
“Discovery of the True Cross” by Agnolo Gaddi (c. 1380s), a fresco in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim. 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 Rome’s authority – including Christians who refused sacrifice to Roman gods. Although believers spoke of the cross as the instrument of salvation, it seldom appeared in Christian art unless disguised as an anchor or the Chi-Rho until after Constantine’s edict of toleration. More than anything else, however, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is a celebration and commemoration of God’s greatest work: His salvific death on the Cross and His Resurrection, through which death was defeated and the doors to heaven opened. As the entrance antiphon for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross states: “We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for He is our salvation, our life and our resurrection: through Him we are saved and made free.” — CNA/EWTN and AmericanCatholic.org
‘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.’ St. Theodore the Studite
Daily Scripture readings SEPT. 12-18
Sunday: Isaiah 50:4c-9a, James 2:1418, Mark 8:27-35; Monday (St. John Chrysostom): 1 Timothy 2:1-8, Luke 7:1-10; Tuesday (The Exaltation of the Holy Cross): Numbers 21:4b-9, Philippians 2:6-11, John 3:13-17; Wednesday (Our Lady of Sorrows): 1 Timothy 3:14-16, John 19:25-27; Thursday (Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian): 1 Timothy 4:12-16, Luke 7:36-50; Friday (St. Robert Bellarmine): 1 Timothy 6:2c-12, Luke 8:1-3; Saturday: 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Luke 8:415
SEPT. 19-25
Sunday: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20, James 3:164:3, Mark 9:30-37; Monday (Sts. Andrew Kim Tae-gon and Paul Chong Ha-sang and Companions): Ezra 1:1-6, Luke 8:16-18; Tuesday (St. Matthew): Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13, Matthew 9:9-13; Wednesday: Ezra 9:5-9, Tobit 13:2-4, 7-8, Luke 9:1-6; Thursday (St. Pius of Pietrelcina): Haggai 1:1-8, Luke 9:7-9; Friday: Haggai 2:1-9, Luke 9:18-22; Saturday: Zechariah 2:5-9, 14-15a, Jeremiah 31:10-13, Luke 9:43b-45
SEPT. 26-OCT. 2
Sunday: Numbers 11:25-29, James 5:1-6, Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48; Monday (St. Vincent de Paul): Zechariah 8:1-8, Luke 9:46-50; Tuesday (St. Wenceslaus, St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions): Zechariah 8:20-23, Luke 9:51-56; Wednesday (Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael): Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, John 1:47-51; Thursday (St. Jerome): Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12, Luke 10:1-12; Friday (St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus): Baruch 1:15-22, Luke 10:13-16; Saturday (The Holy Guardian Angels): Baruch 4:5-12, 2729, Matthew 18:1-5, 10
