Dick Gregory, a human rights activist and comedian once said, "If Jesus came back today and bugged the wrong people he would get the electric chair, and we would all be wearing electric chairs around our necks." His point ties in with today's feast. We exalt, or lift up the cross of Christ. This feast goes back to the tradition that St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, the Roman emperor who legalized Christianity in the 4th century, found three crosses in Jerusalem when the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was being built. According to legend the true cross was discovered when a dying woman was healed after laying on it.
Dick Gregory's comment should cause us to think about what we really think about the cross and what it stands for. Many men, women, and children have suffered and even died through the centuries because of what the cross represents, salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We venerate the cross on Good Friday. We make the sign of the cross before and after prayers. We cross ourselves when entering and exiting a church with the holy water to remind us of our baptismal vows. We wear crosses around our necks. We are charged to "carry our cross". We sing, "Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim...." But do we pay attention? The Gospel reading for today has one of the most famous passages from John: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." Through his death on the cross.
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