9/14: Our sign of hope and victory over sin and death

  The Word:

John 3: 13-17  

 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091425.cfm

    Why would we celebrate a feast of the cross in the early fall season of the year?  September 14th, then, may feel more like a mini Good Friday when the cross is so prominent a part of our Holy Week services.  There are distinct historical events that go back to the 4th century of Christianity when this Feast was established on Sept. 14th.

    The Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity as the official religon of the Roman Empire. With that pronouncement, Christians everywhere could come out of hiding and their hidden faith expressed in the catacombs outside Rome, could now boldly be proclaimed without fear of persecution.  It must have been a glorious time!

    New Christian Churches were established, old pagan worship sights were destroyed and the materials carried off the construct new public sights of worship. It is a well known fact the main bronze doors of St. Peter Basilica in Rome were taken from the Pantheon building which was a place of pagan worship for a gouping of a number of gods in Rome. Those doors are enormous and have been preserved to the present day as St. Peter's was constructed in the 16th century. Before that, the old St. Peter's had stood over his grave sight for nearly a thousand years.  

    So, this feast was established to remember when St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, discoverd the true cross of Jesus in Jerusalem through a miraculous healing.  The Church of the Holy Sepulcher over the spot where the cross was found at the foot of Mt. Calvary, still stands today to honor that finding.  

    Let us celebrate this beautiful feast which reminds us why the image of the cross is central to the Christian faith.  Fortunately, it falls on a Sunday this year making it possible for more of the congregation to celebrate this victory over sin and death through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

    How surprised were you to find your local priest vested  in red this Sunday instead of the usual green in this ordinary liturgical season? 

May we give thanks for our salvation through the Triumph of the Cross this Sunday.

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O God, who willed that your Ony Begotten Son

should undergo the Cross to save the human race, grant

that we, who have known his mystery on earth,

may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity

of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.