Look up at the cross, it’s where we find redemption, new life

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

A reflection on the daily readings, for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

+ In the Gospels, Jesus teaches —

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

And as many people have said about Jesus, he was a man who “walked his talk.”

This is powerfully expressed into today’s second reading taken from the letter to the Philippians. And the first reading from Numbers is seen as a prototype for the Gospel passage from John, so that just as the serpent of bronze was lifted up and those bitten by the serpents were sure to die, they only had to “look up” at the bronze serpent mounted on a pole and they would surely live.

And we, too, are urged to “look up at the cross,” for it is there that we, too, find redemption and new life. For it was at Jesus’ most humbled and vulnerable moment in his life — on the cross — that he so purely and divinely revealed his love for all to see. There, he prayed to the Father to forgive all who humbled him on that cross. Out of love he prayed that prayer to the Father. He forgave those who were killing him and rejecting him.

This, a statement and response to the Gospel passage, in which Jesus said to us —

“For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.”

Yes! On that cross Jesus loved and forgave. Look at that. We must! Look at that, and live. Look at that and find the kingdom!

And echoing the verse before the Gospel we, too, can say and sing —

“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you,
because by your Cross you have redeemed the world.”