Today we heard in the Gospel the following phrase:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him, may not perish; but may have life everlasting” (John 3:14-15)
In this Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross (which historically commemorates the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, in Jerusalem around 326 AD), the Church teaches us something slightly different from what she teaches in the Feast of the Exaltation (or Triumph) of the Holy Cross on September 14, which commemorates the consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the later recovery of the Cross by Emperor Heraclius.
In the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Church celebrates the glory of the Cross of Christ, and not only His Cross, but also —indirectly— the transformation of what the world considered an instrument of shame and curse into the most glorious and blessed instrument of Redemption. This pattern was then adopted in Christian imagery to represent the martyrs with the instruments of their passion —tools that became, in a similar way to the Cross of Christ- instruments of their victory and glory.
Today, in this Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross, we remember the meaning and reason for the Cross of Christ: The Redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ, who became the representative of humanity and was sacrificed in its place, thereby paying the debt that mankind owed to God —not only through His blood (as a mystical sacrificial Lamb)- but also by living an exemplary life and teaching us the true face of God and the way to reunite all of us (the seed of Adam) with Him.
That is why the phrase, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him, may not perish; but may have life everlasting” is so important today. But so too is the phrase spoken by our Lord immediately before it:
“And no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven”
In a few words, Christ was saying: I know God because I am God, and I can reveal to you the divine will so that you may attain eternal happiness.
Yes, God’s desire for our future is not merely a life without end —something like an eternal continuation in time— but ETERNAL HAPPINESS, which is beautifully described in chapter 21st of the Book of the Apocalypse:
"καὶ ἤκουσα φωνῆς μεγάλης ἐκ τοῦ θρόνου λεγούσης· Ἰδοὺ ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ σκηνώσει μετ’ αὐτῶν, καὶ αὐτοὶ λαοὶ αὐτοῦ ἔσονται, καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς μετ’ αὐτῶν ἔσται καὶ ἐξαλείψει πᾶν δάκρυον ἐκ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ ὁ θάνατος οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι, οὔτε πένθος οὔτε κραυγὴ οὔτε πόνος οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι· ὅτι τὰ πρῶτα ἀπῆλθαν” (“And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them. And they shall be his people; and God himself with them shall be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away.”) (Apocalypse 21: 3-4)
Then, Christ was saying: I know God, I am God, and I can reveal to you His will, which is this: I will pay the price for the sin of Adam (who abandoned my Father’s house to build his own world), so that you may return to my Father’s house united to Me, looking towards Me as the Israelites did to the healing image of the serpent, trusting in My guidance, and placing your faith in Me.
And how does a person do this? By “being born again of water and the Holy Ghost” that is, by accepting the grace of the Sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ and learning to trust in the Father’s Divine Providence. Both are essential, and no one can enter heaven without them. No one!
Now, we know what baptism is, so I will not extend myself on that. But “learning to trust in the Father’s Divine Providence” is something in which I want you to put attention particularly today. Something that is also explained in the Gospel, when our Lord says:
“The Spirit breatheth where He will; and thou hearest his voice, but thou knowest not whence he cometh, and whither he goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
This is precisely what it means to trust in Divine Providence: to work for the Kingdom of God while remembering that we are here, in this pilgrimage we call life, to learn to detach from ourselves and to follow the inspirations of God.
Anyway, I began this sermon by speaking about Moses for a reason.
To my knowledge, Moses had only two requests in his life (as recorded in Exodus) that were denied by God. He asked, “Show me Thy glory” and God essentially replied: I love you, but I cannot do that, for you would die. As He says in the Old Testament, “Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20)
The other request Moses made was to enter the Promised Land, and God said, in effect: Because of your disobedience, you cannot.
Now, if we fast forward to the account of the Transfiguration, Moses appears and speaks with Jesus. His face is radiant. And what is Moses seeing? The face of God, and he is in the Promised Land.
That, my dear friends, is an example of what it means to trust in Divine Providence: to know that even when we do not see the full picture, the complete plan of God, we can be certain that His Divine Will is the best possible path for our lives, better than anything we could plan or desire. And so we obey Him out of love.
May we, in this Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross, also discover how great and beautiful it is to live our lives learning to say, in every moment and in every situation: Lord, Thy will be done!
