We are observing in the Liturgy today a very old feast of the Church: the feast of adoring the Cross of Jesus Christ. And I am reminded about the message Bishop Greg Brewer offered to this parish at the Mass of my Institution as the Rector of St Paul’s, four years ago. His message was for St Paul’s to continue full throttle in what he called the charism of our parish, meaning the special gift this parish has, in a way that is unique among parishes in the Diocese of Central Florida. Our charism, he said, is that we have a particular gift of adoration. Through our Anglo-Catholic tradition, the Bishop strongly and enthusiastically voiced his support for us to continue to use our charism to adore Jesus: His Word and His Sacrament, a charism of beauty, reverence, and prayer, and do so as an example for the diocese.

You can see why this is particularly fitting for Holy Cross Day: a very old feast that goes back all the way to the early fourth century, even the year of our Lord 335. The Emperor S. Constantine, at the urging of his mother S. Helena erected great churches at Mount Calvary over the holy places of the crucifixion and the burial of our Lord. The present day Church of the Holy Sepulchre incorporates what remains of those early edifices. And in the course of the construction of these shrines were discovered relics of the true Cross, relics which became immediately employed for veneration in liturgy. The faithful Cross: alone counted worthy to hold the world’s Redeemer.

In worshiping toward the Cross, facing the Cross, adoring the Cross, bowing our knee to the Cross, we worship Christ: Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Risen One. And we can understand who Jesus is no other way than through facing the Cross in worship; for the Cross is Our Lord’s chosen means by which to reveal Himself to us. The Cross is the completion of the project begun in Adam and Eve – the making of the human being, the revelation on the Cross of humanity in its fullest sense; and the Cross is our beginning, for by it we are newly created. As Saint Paul writes in 1 Cor 1:18: “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Jesus shows us what it means to be God in the way He dies on the Cross as a human being. What it means to be God is shown through this profound and unspeakable act of apparent weakness. I say apparent weakness, for we know that while it seems like weakness, in fact it is the opposite. For as Jesus told Paul: “My power is made perfect in weakness.” The Cross is Christ’s glory and ours; on the Cross is Christ’s victory for all time. It is through this weakness that His endless love is revealed: His supreme love shown in His sacrifice. His perfect love shining through the holy Cross.

It was for this revelation to us and to His Church that Jesus was lifted up as Moses lifted up a fiery bronze serpent set on a pole (as described in Numbers 21), that those bit by a serpent of sin may look upon the serpent lifted high on pole by Moses, and, by this vision, live. Notice how on many crucifixes Jesus is often shaped in a kind of twisted sort of way (which reflects of course His holy suffering). This reflects His suffering final breaths but also because it affirms that Jesus is the fiery bronze serpent held up by Moses by which sin is healed. Therefore in Lent and in our Good Friday liturgy in Holy Week we pray the antiphon “We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.” By gazing on the Cross, we live.

Our Lord Jesus taught His disciples these words: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” Let us allow our hearts to be drawn deep into the holy mystery of the Cross. By the Cross on which Christ died, we are healed. The glory of the Cross shines over heaven and earth. Our Lord’s most holy Cross is for all Christian people an endless source of grace and blessing. For those that believe in the power of the Holy Cross which we exalt this day, weakness is turned into strength, shame into glory, and death into life. By the Cross, Christ trampled down death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing life eternal.

Our Lord is the true paschal Lamb that takest away the sins of the world. Through the Cross, Christ is risen from the dead. O come, let us adore Him and His most Holy Cross. Let in adoration look upon His Holy Cross, and by the Cross of Jesus, live. We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world. You Who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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