The celebration this morning, September 14, at the Calvary, in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, an essential date in the life of all Christians and a synthesis of the entire Paschal mystery of Our Lord Jesus, was solemn and profound. It was celebrated for the first time in 335, and in the centuries that following this feast was also absorbed the commemoration of the recovery of the True Cross by the Emperor Heraclius in 628, from the Persians.
In the West, this important feast is accompanied by other dates dedicated to the Cross of the Lord, in particular the feast of May 7th, the Invention (rediscovery) of the Lord’s Cross by St. Helen, as well as the solemn adoration of the Cross during the functions of Good Friday.
The Greek Orthodox also celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th, and it is one of the most important festivities in the Liturgical Year, along with the procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross celebrated August 1st, the adoration of the Cross on the Third Sunday of Lent and the procession with the Cross on Holy Thursday.
The Franciscan community honoured the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross with a solemn Holy Mass celebrated in the Latin Chapel of the Crucifixion, on Calvary, praying at the altar dominated by the moving mosaic which portrays the crucifixion scene. On this special occasion, the reliquary containing a precious fragment of the wood of the Cross was placed on the altar, as though on a throne. The ceremony was presided by Fr. Artemio Vitores, Custodial Vicar, with Fr. Fergus Clarke, Guardian of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre and Fr. Noel Muscat, Discreet of the Holy Land, concelebrating. There were also very many Franciscans and other priests, men and women religious from the many orders present in the Holy Land and members of the faithful, with the local Arabic-speaking Christians, in addition to a large number of pilgrims and worshipers who gathered at Calvary on this important day.
At the end of the Holy Mass the relic of the Holy Cross, in the hands of Fr. Artemio Vitores, was carried in a solemn procession to the Altar of the Apparition of the Resurrected to Mary Magdalene, to the hymn Vexilla Regis. Here, the participants were able to approach and kiss the reliquary with devotion, first of all the concelebrants and then the several hundred people who wanted to pay tribute to the Cross of the Lord.
Indeed, as Fr. Artemio Vitores underlined in his homily, “The wood of the Cross has always attracted Christians who want to see it, touch it and kiss it. The Cross is the Christian symbol par excellence, the highest symbol of Christian identity.” Precisely, the absurdity of the cross, “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1Cor 1,23), becomes the sign of God’s love, the extent of His love and expression of a boundless love. It had always been the instrument of an ignominious death for criminals but, through Jesus, it becomes the gate to eternal life, the beginning of the resurrection. On the cross, the Son of God is lifted up above everything and Christ draws every man with Him, in His glory, returning to man the fullness of the dignity and familiarity with the Father (John 12,32). All the elements of the liturgy, from when Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the desert (Numbers 21,4-9), to the Christological hymn of St. Paul (Philippians 2,5-11), to Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus (John 3,13-17), express this yearning for life, which is enclosed in the mystery of the triumph of the Cross and in the mystery of salvation.
Exactly at the time when love is raised, sublimated and elevated to the supreme point in the whole of history, it appears in its absolute humility, in approaching the lowest and most concealed point of human existence, becoming fragile and nude to touch on the misery and impurities of man and heal them. John Paul II wrote in the Encyclical Dives in Misericordia: “The cross is the most profound condescension of God to man and to what man - especially in difficult and painful moments - looks on as his unhappy destiny. The cross is like a touch of eternal love upon the most painful wounds of man's earthly existence.”
Lastly, the cross is also a summons to imitate and follow Christ, a vocation for shared responsibility, in the light of the choice for what is essential and which finalizes every effort to build up a common salvation. The soul, which has always been summoned to a perfect communion with God, is also called on to join the redeeming passion of Christ, to relieve the weight of the sin that is a burden on the world: a “communion in sorrow” in view of a “communion in value”, of the creation of very high values. This style of life, in the variety of the vocations and ways in which it is fulfilled, fully interprets the project of the gift of the self, to the extreme limit of the gift of one’s life, in the awareness that there is no absolute abandonment by the Father, but a common meeting of God and man through suffering, through the greatness of the love of Christ on the cross. Simone Weil writes: “Those who succeed in keeping their soul oriented towards God whilst a nail pierces it, are nailed to the very centre of the universe. It is the real centre, which is not in the middle, which is outside space and time, which is God. According to a dimension which does not belong to space, which is not time, which is a particular dimension, this nail has made a hole through creation, through the thickness of the screen that separates the soul from God. [...] It is at the point of intersection between the creation and the Creator, the point where the arms of the Cross meet.”
By Caterina Foppa Pedretti
Photos by Marco Gavasso
In the West, this important feast is accompanied by other dates dedicated to the Cross of the Lord, in particular the feast of May 7th, the Invention (rediscovery) of the Lord’s Cross by St. Helen, as well as the solemn adoration of the Cross during the functions of Good Friday.
The Greek Orthodox also celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th, and it is one of the most important festivities in the Liturgical Year, along with the procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross celebrated August 1st, the adoration of the Cross on the Third Sunday of Lent and the procession with the Cross on Holy Thursday.
The Franciscan community honoured the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross with a solemn Holy Mass celebrated in the Latin Chapel of the Crucifixion, on Calvary, praying at the altar dominated by the moving mosaic which portrays the crucifixion scene. On this special occasion, the reliquary containing a precious fragment of the wood of the Cross was placed on the altar, as though on a throne. The ceremony was presided by Fr. Artemio Vitores, Custodial Vicar, with Fr. Fergus Clarke, Guardian of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre and Fr. Noel Muscat, Discreet of the Holy Land, concelebrating. There were also very many Franciscans and other priests, men and women religious from the many orders present in the Holy Land and members of the faithful, with the local Arabic-speaking Christians, in addition to a large number of pilgrims and worshipers who gathered at Calvary on this important day.
At the end of the Holy Mass the relic of the Holy Cross, in the hands of Fr. Artemio Vitores, was carried in a solemn procession to the Altar of the Apparition of the Resurrected to Mary Magdalene, to the hymn Vexilla Regis. Here, the participants were able to approach and kiss the reliquary with devotion, first of all the concelebrants and then the several hundred people who wanted to pay tribute to the Cross of the Lord.
Indeed, as Fr. Artemio Vitores underlined in his homily, “The wood of the Cross has always attracted Christians who want to see it, touch it and kiss it. The Cross is the Christian symbol par excellence, the highest symbol of Christian identity.” Precisely, the absurdity of the cross, “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1Cor 1,23), becomes the sign of God’s love, the extent of His love and expression of a boundless love. It had always been the instrument of an ignominious death for criminals but, through Jesus, it becomes the gate to eternal life, the beginning of the resurrection. On the cross, the Son of God is lifted up above everything and Christ draws every man with Him, in His glory, returning to man the fullness of the dignity and familiarity with the Father (John 12,32). All the elements of the liturgy, from when Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the desert (Numbers 21,4-9), to the Christological hymn of St. Paul (Philippians 2,5-11), to Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus (John 3,13-17), express this yearning for life, which is enclosed in the mystery of the triumph of the Cross and in the mystery of salvation.
Exactly at the time when love is raised, sublimated and elevated to the supreme point in the whole of history, it appears in its absolute humility, in approaching the lowest and most concealed point of human existence, becoming fragile and nude to touch on the misery and impurities of man and heal them. John Paul II wrote in the Encyclical Dives in Misericordia: “The cross is the most profound condescension of God to man and to what man - especially in difficult and painful moments - looks on as his unhappy destiny. The cross is like a touch of eternal love upon the most painful wounds of man's earthly existence.”
Lastly, the cross is also a summons to imitate and follow Christ, a vocation for shared responsibility, in the light of the choice for what is essential and which finalizes every effort to build up a common salvation. The soul, which has always been summoned to a perfect communion with God, is also called on to join the redeeming passion of Christ, to relieve the weight of the sin that is a burden on the world: a “communion in sorrow” in view of a “communion in value”, of the creation of very high values. This style of life, in the variety of the vocations and ways in which it is fulfilled, fully interprets the project of the gift of the self, to the extreme limit of the gift of one’s life, in the awareness that there is no absolute abandonment by the Father, but a common meeting of God and man through suffering, through the greatness of the love of Christ on the cross. Simone Weil writes: “Those who succeed in keeping their soul oriented towards God whilst a nail pierces it, are nailed to the very centre of the universe. It is the real centre, which is not in the middle, which is outside space and time, which is God. According to a dimension which does not belong to space, which is not time, which is a particular dimension, this nail has made a hole through creation, through the thickness of the screen that separates the soul from God. [...] It is at the point of intersection between the creation and the Creator, the point where the arms of the Cross meet.”
By Caterina Foppa Pedretti
Photos by Marco Gavasso