Tag: Holy Cross

15Sep

The Holy Cross Will Triumph Over Terror and Death

The feast day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross isn’t really about the events of Good Friday so much as it is about the finding of what was believed to be the true cross by St. Helena in Jerusalem in 326 and its subsequent veneration by the church. The day is about celebrating the triumph of the cross, and Christianity, over the forces of evil and death. We are reminded that Christ said, “I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” The cross was the instrument upon which he was tortured and murdered, at the hands of a brutal Roman government and a religious cabal among his own people who had rejected him. But his death was not the end, or that cross would have been forgotten and lost to the dusts of time. 

The events of the past week remind us of those forces of evil and opposition to God’s love. Random acts of hate, and targeted acts of political violence have shocked us recently. In the span of a few short days, I have seen the senseless killing of a young woman on a train in North Carolina, the murder of children attending a Christian mass at a Catholic school in Minnesota, and the commemoration of the death and mayhem of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks. As if that isn’t enough, this was followed very shortly by the brutal murder of Charlie Kirk on the same day as another school shooting. 

One of these horrors, the murder of Charlie Kirk, seems to have the makings of a cultural moment, similar to 9/11. This seems at least true for the younger generations in our country, and even those beyond our borders.  He was as bold in sharing his Christian faith as he was in advocating his political ideas. Therefore I also mourn his loss as a brother in Christ.

As we pray for the family of Mr. Kirk, and for all these victims, we draw our eyes back to that cross, representing both death and triumph.  On this side of paradise we see only the death, but we also cling to the promise of triumph. In the end, God’s love will prevail over the evil and hate. The cross reminds us that God promises that all the wickedness that we endure (and also, if we are honest, perpetrate) will be redeemed into triumph. Thanks to that ugly, nail pocked wood, now splintered up into bits and pieces and residing in countless shrines across the world, our pain will be subsumed into a glorious new reality at the end of time, where all tears will be wiped away and only laughter and joy prevail. 

15Sep

The Holy Cross

September 14 marks an interesting and ancient feast in the Church, “The Exaltation of the Holy Cross” or “Holy Cross Day.” The day is observed in some fashion by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans. Red vestments are traditionally worn on Holy Cross Day.

The history behind this is fascinating, as it marks a time when Christianity was becoming ascendant within the Roman Empire. The story displays also something of the shift toward what we might identify as a medieval mindset within the faith. After all, this is a tale of magic, of a questing empress, and the veneration of relics that are thought to provide divine protection.

The empress in question is Helena (also known as Saint Helena in some circles), a woman of obscure birth who became the wife of Constantius, one of the co-emperors of the Roman Empire; Though he divorced her, their only son was Constantine I, destined to become the supreme ruler in the year 306. She never remarried, but remained close with her son. She was a devout Christian, and did much to promote Christianity within a Roman Empire that had previously tried to squash it.

The emperor Constantine appointed his mother Helena as “Augusta Imperatrix” and authorized her to go on a quest to the Holy Land to investigate Christian sites. She tore down pagan shrines which had been deliberately placed at Christian sites by an earlier emperor, and she began the building of magnificent churches at the sites of Jesus’ birth and at the Mount of Olives.

While in Jerusalem, she is said to have found the “true cross” upon which Jesus was executed. According to legend the cross of Jesus had been buried in a cistern, along with crosses of the other two prisoners executed with him. She supposedly also recovered the nails and a part of the sign that had hung above his head (a wooden plaque inscribed with Jesus Nazaranus Rex Iudaeorum). The “true Cross” was identified among the three based on observation of its healing powers.

The subsequent tale of the cross could fill a large book. Much of it was carried to Constantinople, and part of it went to Rome, where it is kept to this day at the Basilica Santa Croce. The portion left in Jerusalem was stolen in 614 by the Persian emperor Khosrau II, and returned after his defeat by Byzantine emperor Heraclitus. In the 12th century, when the Crusaders reconquered Jerusalem, it came into the possession of Arnulf Malecorne, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who carried it aloft during battles. It was later captured by Saladin and lost to history.

Tiny fragments of the “true cross” were prized among the faithful; they became popular as amulets for kings and nobles to wear as a sign of faith and for personal protection, and for churches to keep as relics. The proliferation of relics accelerated at sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1124. Bits of the “true cross” can be found across the globe, from Greece’s Mount Athos to Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, to Shaftesbury, England to Galveston, Texas. By the 16th century, Protestant reformer John Calvin remarked, “…if all the pieces that could be found were collected together, they would make a big ship-load. Yet the Gospel testifies that a single man was able to carry it.”

Saint Ambrose, in his funeral oration for Theodosius, recounted the legend surrounding the discovery of the true cross, and said this of Helena: “she worshiped not the wood, but the King, him who hung upon the cross.”

May we do the same.

For more information:
As of the time of this writing, Wikipedia has a long and interesting article about the True Cross. More details about these stories are also available online at Catholic Education Resource Center, and at New Advent.