{"id":713,"date":"2015-09-14T08:57:25","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T06:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/?p=713"},"modified":"2015-09-14T08:57:25","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T06:57:25","slug":"exaltation-of-the-holy-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/2015\/09\/14\/exaltation-of-the-holy-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"Exaltation of the Holy Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s liturgy we remember a silent witness and message that accompanies us for our whole life. It hangs in churches, from rosaries, and from our necks. It hangs on classroom walls and in hospital wards, and it stands watch over the tombs of our loved ones waiting for the Resurrection at the end of time. This silent witness says so many things that from ancient times it has brought a simple prayer to Christian lips: \u201cHail the Cross, Our Only Hope.\u201d It\u2019s not hanging in so many schools or hospitals anymore, but that is because the world cannot ignore the message it sends and the witness it gives.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s Gospel Our Lord says that he must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. He draws a parallel from a moment in the life of Israel and Moses that we remember in today\u2019s First Reading: Christ\u2019s raising up must be like that bronze serpent Moses set up in the desert so that the Israelites could look upon when they received a lethal bite from the little seraph serpents and\u00a0be saved. We too have received that lethal bite for our sins: the lethal bite of death, and by raising our eyes to Christ on the Cross and entrusting ourselves to Him, we receive life. There\u2019s no other cure for the poison of sin than the grace Christ won for us on the cross.<\/p>\n

Let us thank Our Lord for suffering and dying for us on the cross, and promise him that today we\u2019ll gaze upon the crucifix with eyes of love, trusting in him to keep transmitting to us the message of love that the cross gives us.<\/p>\n

Readings:\u00a0Numbers 21:4b\u20139;\u00a0Philippians 2:6\u201311;\u00a0John 3:13\u201317.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s liturgy we remember a silent witness and message that accompanies us for our whole life. It hangs in churches, from rosaries, and from our necks. It hangs on classroom walls and in hospital wards, and it stands watch over the tombs of our loved ones waiting for the Resurrection at the end of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,89],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-exaltation-of-the-holy-cross","tag-triumph-of-the-cross"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p65qtw-bv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}