Sister Sallie Latkovich is a Sister of St. Joseph with a doctorate in ministry in Scripture who most recently taught at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and served in leadership in her religious congregation.
Sister Sallie Latkovich is a Sister of St. Joseph with a doctorate in ministry in Scripture who most recently taught at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and served in leadership in her religious congregation.
Sunday, Sept. 14
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Num 21:4b-9; Ps 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38; Phil 2:6-11; Jn 3:13-17
To this very day, we recognize this symbol: it is the very image that God directs Moses to raise up so that all who look upon it will be saved. I rely on my friend and scholar, Sister Dianne Bergant, for my reflections on the readings of this feast.
All of the readings we hear this Sunday claim that “what kills you can make you stronger.” Jesus’ death on the Cross made him stronger, and we are strengthened as we participate in that death. The Cross leads us to Resurrection.
The story in the first reading from the book of Numbers must have been familiar to the Jewish people at the time of Jesus. For, Jesus uses it in his instruction to Nicodemus as we hear in the Gospel.
Jesus compares the lifting up of the serpent to his own being lifted up on the Cross. Just as those in the wilderness of the Exodus were healed of death, so those who look to Jesus with faith in him are healed of whatever might deny them eternal life.
Paul’s letter to the community at Philippi articulates several mysteries of our faith. Christ Jesus, true God, emptied himself of all divine privilege and became human in order to bring us back to God. Jesus’ wholehearted commitment to this goal cost him his life.
On this feast, the Exaltation of the Cross, are we glorifying an instrument of torture? Absolutely NOT! The Cross was the instrument of Jesus’ death, and thus, the means of our redemption. The Cross is a symbol of Jesus’ love for us. When we honor the Cross as we do today, or venerate it as we do on Good Friday, we are really acknowledging divine love and our total dependence on it.
When we see the above symbol of medicine, even in our day, let us remember the healing act of our Christ being lifted up on the Cross.
Sister Sallie Latkovich is a Sister of St. Joseph with a doctorate of divinity in Scripture who most recently taught at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and served in leadership in her religious congregation.
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