Father Thomas Welbers' Homily	Jump back to Homily Index
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14, 2003 Numbers 21:4b-9 Philippians 2:6-11 John 3:13-17	Listen to Audio

John 3:16. You just heard it in the gospel reading. You see it at ballparks and on bumper stickers, on TV and posted on telephone poles. In fact, if you’ve noticed, every time you come to Mass our friends at the Western Assemblies Home across the street make sure that we see it. John 3:16. Perhaps the best-known sound bite in all of Scripture: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.”

It seems so simple. Just believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and have eternal life. Don’t believe and, well, you perish. Of course, we know we are not saved by sound bites. It is simple; but simple does not mean easy.

Believing in Jesus means that we invest our total selves in him. Believing in Jesus means listening to him, hearing his call to follow him – even if that means abandoning all else that we possess, or think we possess.

The letter of St. James, which was read on the last two Sundays, and will also be read on the next two Sundays, emphasizes that faith, if it is real, must be put into practice. This Sunday, by an accident of the calendar, the readings of Ordinary time are displaced by the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which always occurs on September 14. What does that mean, “exaltation”? Well, when you exalt someone or something, you hold them up for admiration.

In the second reading today, St. Paul quotes an ancient hymn which exalts Christ crucified. As we just heard it proclaimed, it says that Jesus was exalted, or glorified, by God precisely because he humbled himself. He did not claim anything as his own, but rather emptied himself, so that God the Father might fill him, and raise him above all else as Lord of all creation.

That is familiar enough to us. But St. Paul does not quote this hymn just for us to admire Christ, or even to appreciate the work that he did for our salvation, his gift to us of eternal life with him. Instead, St. Paul makes it clear that we are not just receivers of what Christ did; we are participants. We continue his work precisely by doing what he did.
The verse before the selection we heard in the second reading says it all: “Your attitude must be that of Christ.” What Christ did, you must do.

St. Paul had been speaking to this tiny but faithful Christian community in a large and prosperous city in Greece, Philippi, begging them to live in a manner worthy of the Good News of Jesus Christ they had received. They acknowledged Jesus as Lord, so Paul was telling them to how to live under his lordship. They must not imitate the pagans around them, seeking ,above all, power and prestige, material gain and pleasure. Rather, he says, “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”

Then he begins to speak of Jesus’ mind, or attitude, that he wanted them to imitate. This is what we heard in the second reading:

“ Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not deem equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness, and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.”

What Christ did, that’s what we are called to do. Our sinful, human instincts want to run away from the cross, to question and even deny the goodness of God if we are called to suffer in any way. Can our mind and heart imitate Jesus? Can we accept humbly and lovingly whatever share of the cross is given to us, and trust God enough to allow that our salvation, our eternal life, is found in embracing this cross?

© Thomas Welbers 2003