(Num 21,4b-9; Philippians 2,6-11; John 3, 13-17; Exaltation of the Holy Cross: Year A)

(Num 21,4b-9; Philippians 2,6-11; John 3, 13-17; Exaltation of the Holy Cross: Year A)

It is difficult not to notice that there are evil and suffering in the world. Look around you, evil stares you in the face. There are the evils of disease, war, hunger etc. Seeing some of these, people often in desperation ask; why does God permit this or that evil; why does He not want to eradicate them? It seems unbelievable. Indeed it is agonising for someone to see evil spread and it seemingly looks like God does not intervene to stop suffering, pain and sorrows of the innocent ones. This leaves a deep wound in the soul. How do we understand this mystery? The key to understanding this mystery is the cross of Christ. This seems to be complicating the issue for the mystery of the cross itself disconcerts us. We expect a clear and evident divine victory, a triumphal intervention of God, but God rather shows a very humble victory. He teaches victory over death by means of death, victory over pain by undergoing pain; this is rather complicating. How do we resolve the quagmire? What further key to this mystery do we have?  Answer! 

The love God has for humanity!!! God loved the world so much that he gave his Son, so that every one who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. And God sent his Son into the world... In this small passage we see the generosity of God in giving his son to the benefit and well-being of humankind. His generosity is also seen in sending his Son into the world so that through him the world might be saved. To achieve this salvation Jesus was lifted up. The evangelist, John used this expression in some passages that speak about the passion and cross of Jesus. By the use of the expression, the Evangelist indicates the exaltation of the Holy Cross, that is to say, he glorifies the Cross, showing that the cross was not really a humiliation but an exaltation. In the ancient world, hanging on a cross was regarded as a defeat and punishment meted out to criminals. In Christ’s case, it was not so, but an extraordinary gift of love and a special victory of love. Christ accepted the cross as filial docility to God the Father, whose wish it was to save the world  and whose plan for salvation was accepted by Jesus out of his own love for humankind. Jesus’ death, the giving up of his life, which he did hanging on a cross, is a symbol of the greatest type of love that is ever possible.  Jesus affirmed this in the Gospel: There is no greater love than this: giving ones life for the friends (John 15,13). We exalt the Cross because Jesus has transformed the infamous use of the cross for capital punishment to a symbol of victory of love. This is truly the meaning of the exaltation of the Holy Cross. There is power in this exaltation. For Jesus in John 12,32 told the perplexed crowd: When I will be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men. This affirmation shows that the cross exhibits powerful attraction to men. When faith in the victorious passion of Christ is communicated to someone, he/she gets attracted to the cross because he/she sees in the cross the immense love of Jesus which conquers evil and death.

The second reading presents another form of exaltation that is the product of the cross. On itself, the cross is an extreme humiliation. St. Paul affirms that Christ who is of divine nature renounced being regarded as God, emptied himself (the first humiliation) and took on the condition of a slave, making himself similar to men. Then he was further and radically humiliated as he became obedient event unto death on the cross. Death on the cross was the most humiliating level Jesus descended to. As was seen above, the cross was the infamous capital  punishment, especially, for rebellious slaves. Paul, however, went further to affirm: On account of this, God raised him high and gave him the name which is above the other names... The cross of Christ produces its own exaltation. Often Jesus says in the Gospel, he who humbles himself shall be exalted (Luke 14,11; 18,14; Matt 23,12). Jesus humiliated himself in an extreme manner and for this reason, he was exalted by God in an extraordinary way. It is to be noted, once more, that this humiliation of Jesus was also salvific for mankind because it was motivated by love of God the Father and humanity. Jesus was like the serpent that was raised up in the desert and became, as it were, the image of evil and suffering and, at the same time, the remedy of evil and suffering by virtue of the love God has for us. Jesus manifests to us the love of God and has thus transformed things not superficially but in their depths. He has given us the possibility to win with him the same type of humble victory and, through profound love, to discover in evil and suffering the opportunity and occasion for a pure and sincere love, for a love that sustains to the end, thereby following his example who went to the extreme of love. This is the divine answer we have to accept when we experience in ourselves the scandal of evil. We have to always return to this essential point.  The mystery of Jesus could appear to us as a dark one, which is to be understood only by love. This love comes from God, is accepted by the heart of Jesus and was marvellously manifested by his generous sacrifice on the cross. God so loved the world to give (donate) his only Son. Jesus so loved us as to give himself for our salvation through the cross. His humiliation on the cross gave rise to the exultation of the same cross. Let us in this Eucharistic celebration ask the good Lord for the grace to requite God the Father for his love for us by showing love to our needy neighbours even to the point of sacrificing ourselves, just as Jesus did and with the intense love of God as our only motive. May he also enlighten us to see grace, salvation, and victory hidden in the apparent shame and degradation of the cross, suffering and sorrow. HappySunday!

+John I. Okoye.