Numbers 21.4b-9 | Philippians 2.6-11 | John 3.13-17

Today, with Mother Church, we begin the twenty-fourth week of Ordinary Time, on September 14th, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Each year, for Bible Month, the Church presents a book for in-depth study. In 2025, the Letter to the Romans was chosen.

In short, it is the first and longest writing of the Apostle Paul and the most important for its theological content.

In the capital of the Roman Empire, there were Christians converted from Judaism and other religions, who had been expelled from Rome in 49 by Emperor Claudius. Around the year 55, while in Corinth, the Apostle wrote to the Christian community in Rome about the sin of humanity, salvation through faith, justification through the cross of Christ, transformation by the Holy Spirit, and the rejection of Christ by Judaism.

The Letter to the Romans is a profound Catechesis on the salvation that God offers to sinners who believe in Christ and allow themselves to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. It is highly recommended that you read it and delve deeper into it.

Today, the Evangelist John speaks to us of the salvation of those who believe in the only begotten Son of God, the Son of Man lifted up (on the cross).

Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, who was a teacher of the Pharisees—that group of radical Jews who considered themselves perfect keepers of the Law of Moses—and was becoming His disciple. Jesus compared the Son of Man lifted up (on the cross) to the serpent that Moses lifted up in the desert.

The children of Israel, freed by the Lord from slavery in Egypt, as they crossed the desert toward the promised land, spoke against the Lord and against Moses, and were bitten by poisonous serpents. Many people died. Then the Lord told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, promising that whoever was bitten and looked at it would live. Many people were healed. 

This episode, from the Book of Numbers, is the first reading for this Sunday of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

The Evangelist John did not explicitly use the word "cross," limiting himself to "lifted up." But it is clear that, having been crucified, the Son of Man was lifted up.

The comparison with the serpent in the desert pointed to the healing and life-giving power of the crucified Jesus. "That all who believe in Him may have eternal life" (cf. John 3:15).

Sin is rebellion against God. It is like the children of Israel who spoke against the Lord. And the wages of sin is death, symbolized by the poisonous serpents. But God's free gift is eternal life, manifested in the redemptive cross (cf. Romans 6:23).

There is hope for repentant sinners! All who contemplate the only begotten Son of God lifted on the cross, all who experience His love for the world, all who believe in Him and are converted, are not condemned, are saved, are healed, and do not die.

Today, the apostle Paul speaks to us in his letter to the Philippians about God's exaltation of Christ through His self-emptying and His death on the cross.

This is the famous kenosis (from the Greek, emptying), by which Jesus Christ—being the Son of God and coming from Heaven—voluntarily became Man, assumed the condition of a slave, and accepted death on the cross. It is the downward movement. Then God the Father exalted His Son above all and gave Him the Name that is above every name. He is glorious in Heaven. It is the upward movement. 

Therefore, angels, men, and demons must proclaim the lordship of Jesus Christ, with bended knees, glorifying God the Father.

Just as the only-begotten Son was exalted by the Lord, let us exalt the redemptive cross, by which we were rescued from sin and death and transported to the Kingdom of grace and eternal life.

In a society of exalted egos, where some are exalted at the expense of the humiliation of others, let us imitate the self-emptying of our Redeemer, His humility and obedience, resisting all forms of pride and arrogance. The only exaltation that interests us is that which comes from God.

Regarding the Holy Cross, according to Church Tradition, in 312, before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge against Maxentius, the Roman Emperor Constantine had a vision of a cross in the sky accompanied by the phrase "By this sign you will conquer." Inspired by this experience, Constantine used the symbol of the cross on his standard and diadem, and victory in battle was attributed to the power of the Cross.

His mother, Saint Helena, rediscovered the Holy Cross in Jerusalem on May 3, 326. The Holy Cross was later taken by the Persians and was finally recovered by Emperor Heraclius on September 14, 629.

The cross, which was a terrible Roman instrument of torture and death, became a "tree of life," whose fruit is eternal salvation, through the redeeming blood of Christ.

Let us pray: "We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world!"