Today’s feast has ancient roots. In the year 313, the Roman emperor Constantine “legalized” Christianity by decriminalizing it and promoting religious tolerance throughout the empire. That ended the sporadic persecutions of Christians under a succession of prior Roman emperors. By 335, Constantine had erected churches at pilgrimage sites like Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher. According to a traditional account, Constantine’s pious Christian mother Helena traveled to Jerusalem and discovered the true cross of Jesus on this date, and brought it back to Rome. Christian feast days to venerate this relic began in various places after that; Pope Sergius I (687-701) eventually made it a universal Church feast day.
Early Christians had a great appreciation for the sites of martyrs. They would erect small shrines at burial sites and save other relics of their lives. Still today, when new Catholic churches are built, material relics of saints are placed in their altars. That today we honor a material — a wooden cross on which a human person hung — reaffirms for us that Jesus’ life and death and our own lives and deaths matter. We are embodied spirits. What we do with our bodies, with their energy and time, matters. Notice how we save “relics” of people we have lost — like objects and photos — because their lifetime and loving activities touched and changed our lives for the better. Even more, we want material relics of Jesus the Christ! That the material object we venerate (honor) today is a cross, instead of something else, also says something about our human lives. Humans at their best are willing to die for something worthy. We have in our consciousness a preeminent example of sacrifice in our crucified Lord. Imagine the darkness of a world without sacrifice — the sacrifice of parents, first responders, defenders and other dedicated persons who put the common good ahead of even their own lives. When we venerate (honor) the material object of the cross, we also recommit to sacrifice as an element of our own human and spiritual lives. Where is sacrifice in my life and yours?
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post September 14, Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Sacrifice: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.