THE WORD AND THE FEAST
September 14, 2020: The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
Numbers 21: 4b-9; John 3:13-17
We have today a beautiful remembrance, the celebration of the Christian symbol of Love: the Cross. The Cross is taken more often than not, as a symbol of suffering! Yes, it was a symbol of suffering, until the loving Lord took it into his embrace, on his shoulders and climbed on it to give his life for us...all this out of the limitless love he had for us! He changed its meaning and ever since, the cross has come to symbolise love, the unconditional, limitless and boundless love that the Lord has for us.
Hence the feast that we celebrate today gives us a fundamental lesson for living our daily life: Look Up to the Lord and Be Loved!
Look Up:
At times we are lost in the troubles that we have, in the daily struggles and everyday chores; so lost in those that we have time only to murmur, to lament and to complain. We do not have the patience and the capacity to look up! Look Up, look beyond, look upon high and you will see the horizon that will give you hope. Our troubles are big, our concerns are challenging, but the horizon is there, the silver lining is there...we have to look up to notice that. Hope is the key to Christian way of life.
Look to the Lord:
Let us look to the Lord; it is from the Lord that our help comes! The Psalms further insist: Look upto Him and be radiant (34:5). 'Looking Up' alone is not enough, we can be deceived or distracted or misled. Looking to the Lord is the key to Christian Problem Solving. Unless through the Son of God who has come down from heaven, no one can go to the Father who is in heaven, says the Gospel today. The real solutions to our problems lie in the hands of God: it is in looking to the Lord that we will have life, life in all its fullness. It is a call to refrain from telling the Lord that our problems are big; but a call to tell our problems that our Lord is big and mighty!
Be Loved:
The Lord is filled with love, a total self emptying love that does not count the cost! God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that we have eternal life. The Son so loved the world that he gave everything up, and showed his love in the total self-giving on the Cross. We are promised a measure of love that no human mind can comprehend, because it is eternal and limitless. Such is God's love for us, but nothing can be done if I keep myself away from it. When I claim that love, in total obedience and surrender unto the Lord, I feel loved! When I rebel and keep myself away, I prevent myself from experiencing that love which is so present all around me. The key is allowing myself to be loved by God, seeing myself as being loved by God, identifying myself as the beloved child of God.
As we exalt the Cross today, as we sing praises to the One who is lifted high for our salvation, let us resolve to Look Up, to Look to Him and to Let ourselves be loved!
As we exalt the Cross today, as we sing praises to the One who is lifted high for our salvation, let us resolve to Look Up, to Look to Him and to Let ourselves be loved!