The 14th and 15th of September are a pair of feast days that are a kind of “two-in-one” feasts focused on the cross of Jesus the Christ.
On the 14th, we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross as we look at the glory and saving power of the cross.
We remember the seraph mounted on a pole by Moses that saved those bitten by the serpents — simply by looking up at the seraph.
To look up and see with our eyes, and perhaps more with our hearts, is something that often can save us.
And to look up and see the cross with our eyes — and surely more with the eyes of our hearts — is certainly saving and grace-filled.
His death on the cross in total love and forgiveness, and trust and faith in his Father, even to the point of death, caused God to exalt his Son.
And the Gospelsays it clearly: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
In that ugly instrument of death came glory, salvation, life, power, hope, and peace.
And on the very next day — Sept. 15. — we take another look at the cross, but through the eyes of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as she looks up and sees her dying son.
She looks up in sorrow with the sorrow only a mother could feel as she watches her son be brutally killed.
Jesus is the object of hatred, jealousy, and inhuman sinfulness.
So the cross shows us at least two very different faces — the face of glory and exaltation, and the face of sorrow and pain.
But we must look up and see. We simply must see, especially with the eyes of our hearts, so that we, too, can confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
