{"id":2261,"date":"2017-09-14T07:25:46","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T11:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2261"},"modified":"2017-09-14T07:25:46","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T11:25:46","slug":"the-exaltation-of-the-holy-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/the-exaltation-of-the-holy-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"The Exaltation of the Holy Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, September 14th<\/a>, we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. \u00a0It is a feast, like every saint memorial or feast, that we celebrate every year but yet it is different. \u00a0Logistically, because of the importance of what this feast is about and unlike most other feasts, if it falls on a Sunday it takes precedence over the Sunday. \u00a0The feast of a saint is about the saint and how they served God. \u00a0This feast is about the very moment of our salvation.<\/p>\n

To understand its importance one might begin by asking the question what is the one thing that God could not do for us\u00a0as God in his divinity<\/strong><\/em>? \u00a0God is eternal and will never die. \u00a0So, “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. \u00a0Rather, he emptied\u00a0himself, …coming in human likeness,…he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross<\/em>.” \u00a0(quote from\u00a0today’s second reading)<\/a><\/p>\n

Crucifixion was considered the most humiliating form of execution and used only for the worst of criminals. \u00a0Yet, Jesus accepted this\u00a0for us<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0<\/strong>“Because of this, God greatly exalted him.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

The Cross is the instrument upon which Jesus did this. \u00a0We do not worship the Cross itself. \u00a0We worship Jesus but we venerate the Cross as the instrument that Jesus choose for our salvation.<\/p>\n

Here we should think about why, as Catholics, we use a Crucifix rather than a Cross without the Body of Christ on it. \u00a0My limited understanding of Protestant theology says that they use a Cross rather than a Crucifix to say that Jesus is no longer on the Cross. \u00a0He has been set free from the Cross and lifted up. \u00a0He was first lifted up on the Cross for our salvation and for his obedience to the Father, has now be lifted up to Heaven.<\/p>\n

As Catholics, we recognize that Jesus is not bound to the Cross but we use a Crucifix with the image of Jesus on it to always remind us that it is Jesus that saves us. \u00a0We hold the Cross in the highest regard. \u00a0We see the Cross and we see God’s love. \u00a0We see hope.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, September 14th, we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. \u00a0It is a feast, like every saint memorial or feast, that we celebrate every year but yet it is different. \u00a0Logistically, because of the importance of what this feast is about and unlike most other feasts, if it falls on a …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The Exaltation of the Holy Cross’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[339,338],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-At","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2262,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261\/revisions\/2262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}