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Contents: Volume 2 Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (A) September 14, 2025
1. -- Lanie LeBlanc OP -2. -- Dennis Keller OP - 3. --
4. --
****************************************************** I spent many years, 22 to be exact, as a parishioner at the Church of the Holy Cross in Atlanta, Georgia before being transplanted elsewhere and then to the West Coast. Those younger years there allowed me to attend daily Mass including homilies from the Dominican friars in residence. This “home” had a profound influence on my spirituality. The readings for and the actual Triumph of the Cross have a special place in my heart as do the friars.
The symbolism of the Cross has multi-dimensions but Jesus’s triumph over sin and death remains crucial to Christians. Understanding better Jesus’s willingness to undergo the torment of the cross adds to the triumph part. “But there’s more” seems anti-climatic, but there is more!
In the deepest part of all of the bits and pieces that make the Cross what it is for Christians lies the profound, unshakeable, universal, and unconditional love of the Father. This initiating love is in a class of its own, not like any other “love” humans experience, no matter how wonderful that might be at times. It is what needs to be the focal part of each day, each trial and tribulation, each up and down of our lives, and every triumph, big or small.
The more I think about it, the more the “reward” of heaven which Jesus won for us becomes secondary, secondary to the primary point of living and responding to God’s love NOW more fully. For me, the “right now” is easier to embrace than “the far off thereafter”. Ah, this must be partially the influence of my 16+ year old granddaughter who is still very much learning about “instant gratification” vs. long term goals. Being “happy”, which to me means “being at peace”, is really a combination of the now and the forever. The Triumph of the Cross says it all!
Blessings, Dr. Lanie LeBlanc OP Southern Dominican Laity
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September 14, 2025
The cross of Christ is a clear and constant symbol of the Love of the Creator for Creation. Often, we think of the Cross as relative to humanity only. With that thought in mind, we carelessly overlook the wonder of God’s creation. In recent years, we have come to understand how the care and tilling of Creation has morphed into the conversion of the resources of creation into a over use and abuse of natural resources. The resulting weather anomalies threaten the life of the planet we call home and thus the lives of those commissioned by God to care for it.
On this solemn feast, we view the cross as the source of redemption for our failures and the energy source for living with justice for each other and all creation. This is not only a call for us to worship the accomplishment of Jesus through the instrument of the Cross. It is a call for us to pick up our personal and individual crosses. The first reading from the book of Numbers is clear about that. God through Moses instructed the grumbling Hebrew Tribes to look at a bronze snake on a stick. Those who looked on the image of the seraph servant on a stick would be healed of the venomous bite of those flying snakes. What did this mean for those disillusioned former slaves of the Pharoah? Why look on that which caused so much death, so much pain and suffering?! The bite and venom of serpents is a metaphor for the poison that enters hearts when turning away from God. Such poison affects not only our minds, our hearts, but also our bodies with illnesses and accidents. By looking at the source of the poison, we are called to recognize evil that surrounds us and to which we are prone. God never promised us a thornless rose garden in this life. What Jesus did on the Cross was do battle with the way of the world. The culture of the world is based on success, power, wealth, and notoriety. These are what the way of the world counts as the only importance for human life. When we look into the face of snakes that threaten us – the ways of the world – we do battle as Christians with pain and stress. Jesus’ death on the cross was the struggle, the effort, the battle. The Resurrection was the victory he won for us.
If this understanding comes into our hearts, there is peace and quiet joy that replaces the restlessness that drives us for always more. Even the bite of the snakes that seek to poison us cannot kill us. Those bites hurt, those fangs carry the potential of poisoning our love for family, for community, and for daily living. That poison that threatens and rob us of peace of mind, love of neighbor, and freedom.
Looking on the Cross with understanding brings to realization that we need help from the Trinity. That divine energy comes to us from our Advocate, the Spirit. With that energy we continue with life and grow in love of creation, of family, neighbors, and – oh, yes, the most difficult part – of our enemies. When we achieve that freedom which Paul identifies as the “freedom of the children of God,” we discover a peace and abiding joy that nothing can erase.
Did anyone tell us this way of Jesus is easy? Be careful of those who deny the struggle. We need a faith community to sustain us, to lift us up when we fall to our knees. Our Community is brings the brilliant life of God’s truth when darkness blinds eyes of faith. The Cross of Jesus, the Anointed One, is our beacon in moments of individual and collective struggles. It is the highway to resurrection now and as we move to eternity.
Let us not forget, ever, ever, that it is through the Cross of the Lord our crosses have meaning and purpose.
Dennis Keller Dennis@PreacherExchange.com
****************************************************** ****************************************************** ****************************************************** 4. ****************************************************** ****************************************************** 5. ****************************************************** Volume 2 is for you. These reflections follow the Liturgical Calendar and appear here about mid week each week. They are written by various guest authors. If you would like to submit a reflection of your own, then click here to send an email request to post to the Webmaster. Deadline is Monday of each week for the upcoming Sunday.
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A service of The Order of Preachers,
The Dominicans. (form revised 9/92025) |
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Feast of the Exaltation
of the Holy Cross 
