+(Intro) As we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross today we are reminded in a profound way of that moment we celebrate and make present each day at this Altar. It is when our all loving Lord died for us on the Cross. Let us bring him our sins and failings confident in this love.
(After the gospel) We heard in our first reading of how Moses “made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he or she lived.” Our gospel tells us of how Jesus had to be lifted up like the serpent “so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
None of us escapes the mystery of the Cross. We are faced with it in countless ways, whether they be from our family history, our weaknesses and fragility with age, the times we have been hurt by others because of misunderstandings, the bad habits we have to face or the addictions we fall into. We see the terrible suffering each day of countless people from what is happening in Iran, in Ukraine, Russia, in parts of Africa, of all those suffering from earthquakes, tornadoes, flooding and from the heat growing worse, it seems, from year to year.
When we are able in faith to embrace the suffering in our own lives and reach out to assist others, we share in the suffering of Christ that is redeeming our world. Let us ask the Lord then, for the grace to fully embrace the mystery that touches all our lives.
Num 21:4b-9; John 3:13-17