September 14, 2025
Throughout history, from the very beginning of Christianity, the pagan world looked at the cross as a foolish symbol. Why would an instrument of torture, on which the Son of God was crucified, be a source of pride for us?
To early Christians, the cross was an instrument of torture, symbolic of Roman oppression. It was a shameful and brutal way to die, reserved for slaves, foreigners, political activists … and Christians who refused to worship Caesar.
And yet the cross became an object of veneration for the faithful. They saw its significance transformed by the death of Christ, who redeemed us and ensured our salvation. It became a universal symbol of our Savior’s victory over death and a taunt to tyrants.
On September 14, we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross — also known as the “Triumph of the Holy Cross.”
The first public veneration of the True Cross occurred on Good Friday near the end of the 4th century, beginning a practice that continues to our day. An eyewitness account by a Spanish nun said the relic of the cross was taken from a silver container, and “all the people passed through one by one; all of them bowed down, touching the cross and inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and after kissing the cross, they moved on.”
The cross is forever a symbol of triumphant love and of redemptive suffering. Christians turn to the cross in their own trials, temptations and pain. The cross offers no easy answers, only the assurance that Christ is with us in our suffering and grief and that when we unite our suffering with his, it will “bear fruit in this life and the next.” So we offer up our daily “crosses” to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
©J Pisani
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