They will look upon me, the one they have pierced!
Year C – Ordinary Time – Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
John 3:13–17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”
Today, 14 September, the liturgy invites us to pause from the narrative of the evangelist Luke to celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This is a very ancient feast. According to tradition, the early Christian communities in Jerusalem began commemorating the discovery of the Cross, which is said to have taken place on a 14th of September by Saint Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, and the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which occurred on 14 September 335. This feast is still today one of the twelve great feasts of the Orthodox liturgical year.
The Glorious Cross
Saint Paul wrote: “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23). Christians, however, were reluctant to depict the cross, as it evoked the Lord’s shameful death. Did not Scripture say: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Gal 3:13; cf. Deut 21:23)? Other symbols were preferred, such as the fish and loaves, the Good Shepherd, the anchor, the dove, the Christogram… From the fourth century—and symbolically from the emblematic date of 14 September 335—the cross became the Christian symbol par excellence.
From the sixth century, this feast began to be referred to as that of the Exaltation, with the double meaning of the physical “raising up” and the “display” of the Cross. This term aptly conveys the theological intention of the Fourth Gospel, where the cross is presented by Jesus on three occasions in exactly this way—in today’s Gospel passage and in two others. To the Pharisees, Jesus says: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He” (John 8:28). Later, to the astonished crowd, he says: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).
The Super-Exaltation
But why exalt the instrument that brought about the death of the Lord Jesus? Certainly, the cross is simply venerated, but it is Christ who is adored. The cross is the place where the love of God is displayed: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”.
The second reading (Philippians 2:6–11) offers us the meaning of this “exaltation”. Saint Paul uses an ancient Christological hymn, probably composed in Ephesus and circulated among the communities of Asia Minor (cf. Eph 5:19; Col 3:16). Christ “humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name” (Phil 2:7–9). The one whom humans tried to humiliate, God has exalted.
Saint Paul here uses a very strong verb: hyperýpsōsen, a compound word: hypér (above, beyond) + psóō (to raise, to lift up). Thus, hyperýpsōsen does not simply mean “to exalt”, but “to super-exalt”, “to raise to the highest degree”, “to supremely elevate”. It is a superlative, a powerful intensification of the simple raising up. Jesus humbled himself (tapeinóō) to the point of death on a cross—the lowest imaginable level. God’s response is not a mere reparation, but an exaltation that surpasses every measure and even every human conception. The voluntary humiliation (kenosis) of the Son is met with the Father’s overwhelming exaltation.
Let us look upon the one we have pierced!
I invite you to celebrate this feast in the spirit proposed by the prophet Zechariah 12:10: “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look upon me, the one they have pierced.” This is the prophecy quoted by the Fourth Evangelist at the moment when Jesus’ side is pierced: “They will look on the one whom they have pierced” (John 19:37).
The Feast of the Holy Cross invites us to lift up our eyes, not to keep them fixed on the bite of the Serpent (see the first reading, Numbers 21:4–9). The ancient bronze serpent, kept in the Temple of Jerusalem, was destroyed by King Hezekiah, who considered it an object of idolatrous worship (2 Kings 18:4). The cross is the true bronze serpent erected by Christ, the new Moses, in the desert of our lives. By looking at the cross on which Jesus was “made sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21), we acknowledge our sin of grumbling and the serpents of selfishness, anger, greed, lust for power, and vanity… all the “fiery serpents” that are poisoning our lives. And each one of us knows the names of our own little snakes!
Looking at the cross with the “spirit of grace and supplication” promised by God through the prophet, we are healed: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (Gospel).
Lifting our gaze to the Crucified One, we cannot forget those who have been sacrificed on the altar of economic profit, the logic of exploitation, political ambition, totalitarian ideology… all those we have crucified throughout history. Christ gathers them all into himself. Today is also the day of their exaltation. The Lord “has brought down rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52).
When we celebrate the Holy Cross, we also remember all Christians who are persecuted because of their faith. They number over 365 million—one in seven Christians globally. The proportion rises to one in five in Africa and two in five in Asia. This often happens amid general indifference. Their cross, too, is glorious.
This feast, finally, nourishes our hope that one day all “will look upon the one they have pierced” (John 19:37) and will be saved!
For personal reflection:
- Let us try to make the sign of the cross more consciously.
- Under the cross in your room, place a flower each day this week. Also, write on a small piece of paper the phrase: “Anyone who is bitten and looks at it will live” (Num 21:8), thinking of your own “little serpent” that tries to poison your day.
- Remember that you are the “guardian of the flame” of God’s love. A Christian is someone who has “known and believed in the love God has for us. God is love” (1 John 4:16). And “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (cf. Rom 8:31)
Fr Manuel Joao Pereira Correia, MCCJ
Fr. Manuel João, comboni missionary
Sunday Reflection
from the womb of my whale, ALS
Our cross is the pulpit of the Word
