What a gift it is to be able to celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on a Sunday. If you attend Mass on a weekend only, or if you live in a small town and your parish only has a couple daily masses a week, it may have been a while since you have celebrated this Feast. This weekend, pay close attention all the prayers and the readings of the Mass.
This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son should undergo the Cross to save the human race, grant, we pray, that we, who have known his mystery on earth, may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
The Who phrase of the prayer contains the central teaching to the Christian faith, that Jesus went to the Cross to save the whole human race.
Someone once asked me about an incident in 2 Samuel, chapter 6. The oxen stumbled, the ark of God began to shift and Uzzah reached out to keep the ark from falling. Uzzah died because God warned them that if they touched the ark they would die. This person wondered why we don’t die when we sin. And we would die if it weren't for Jesus. He died on the Cross so that our sins could be forgiven. He paid the price and saved the human race.
The petition of our prayer is that we, who know this mystery now, may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven.
This week I’ve been meditating on what a gift it is to us that Jesus submitted to the Cross and we can know this mystery.
The Apostles, knew this mystery in various ways and so can we. When Jesus appeared on the evening of the Resurrection they were fully aware of the price Jesus paid, not just for their salvation, but ours as well. Did they thank Him for the scars He still bore?
They knew that when Jesus died, their sin died, and when Jesus rose to new life, they knew that they did to. They also recognized that they would have a cross to bear as well, and like us, they knew that cross, whether it be joyful or sorrowful, would lead them to Jesus.
I also thought about the Apostles’ prayer. As they prayed, just as Jesus taught them, “This is my Body, this is my Blood,” and they did this in memory of Him, and I wondered if they felt Jesus’ presence as He became present in the Eucharist.
The prayer tells us that it when we come to know these mysteries, we will merit the grace of His redemption in heaven.
In the Latin form of the prayer, for the word grace, we find the word praemia, which means favor or reward, and this favor is all ours when we say, “Yes,” to Jesus’ offering of Himself for our salvation.
This week, as I meditated on this prayer, a song kept playing in my head and some of the lyrics became my prayer because the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is only as powerful and as meaningful as our response to it.
“Thank you for the cross, Lord.
Thank you for the price You paid.
Bearing all my sin and shame In love You came.
Thank you for the nail pierced hands.
[You] Washed me in Your cleansing flow now all I know is Your forgiveness and embrace.
You reign victorious, high and lifted up.
Jesus Son of God,
The Darling of Heaven crucified,
Worthy is the Lamb.”
(Worthy Is The Lamb by Darlene Joyce Zschech)