Fr. Paul ANIGBORO

Today we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. A feast that reminds us of the fact we need to embrace our cross and carry it in order to gain heaven. However, many run away from this reality and forget that faith is tested and strengthened in crises. Spiritual growth doesn't normally occur in easy, comfortable times. We cannot rise to higher realms if we don't first realize that there is something to climb away from.

Like the first reading of today, our patience has been worn out by the journey. We complain against God. While enduring trials, we complain that he should be answering our prayers faster or in a different way, because we don't like waiting and we don't like the extra effort it takes for our sufferings to end.

Complaints are based on hopelessness and lack of trust in God. Complaints are based on what we see with our eyes, as if we can trust our eyes to see the whole picture. Faith tells us that there is a much bigger picture than what we could know or understand. Faith tells us that God has been working a plan, his own strategies, to turn our sufferings into a greater good. Embrace your cross for it is the road to salvation. Let us remember the words of Christ in Matt. 16:24 that if anyone wants to my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

Let us ask ourselves the following questions:

What does the sign of the cross mean to us as Catholics?

Do we make the sign of the cross because we have to make it or because we believe in it and know what it stands for?

Do we have Crucifix at the entrance of our Doors at Home, our offices, shops?

Do we feel ashamed to make the sign of the cross whenever we are asked to pray in a travelling bus or any public place because you don’t want people to know you are a Catholic?

Do we also join Catholics who begin their prayers with In Jesus’ name, in the mighty name of Jesus, forgetting the trinitarian formula with which we are known for?

Have we joined those who do not believe in the cross before the crown?

Our lord Jesus was nailed to the cross and he died on the Cross. The Cross in those days was the worst form of punishment for a runaway slave, murderers, terrorists, armed robbers. It was such a shameful punishment that crucifixion was being carried out in public as a shining example for others. Jesus was not any of the above, yet he died a shameful death on a Cross.

In the year 312 A.D, A Roman General named Constantine was at war with another General called Maxentius. They were pagan Military Generals and were contesting for the next Roman Emperor. Christianity during this period was an illegal religion; it was a crime punishable by death for anyone to be identified as a Christian.

However, on the night before the decisive battle between the two Generals, General Constantine had a vision. He saw in his vision a bright cross in the sky, under the cross was an inscription in Latin, “in hoc signo vinces” meaning by this sign you shall conquer.

The next day, truly to the sign, Constantine’s forces defeated those of Maxentius. It was a huge victory which made Constantine the emperor of the Roman empire. With this victory he became a Christian and, in the year, 313 A.D he decreed that Christianity was no longer an illegal religion, he went further to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Today we celebrate the triumph of the Holy Cross, the victory of Jesus over Satan and all the forces of evil. Fish was the first symbol of Christianity at the beginning of Christianity but with this victory, the Cross became the new symbol of Christianity. Hence, once we see a cross on any building, we automatically assume a Christian lives there.

Let us always cultivate the habit of making the sign of the cross before we start any of our prayers.

Lord, may we have eyes to see the cross of Christ lifted above the disasters that have been happening in our own lives, above our fears and grief and anger! Amen.