Father Chris Looby

  This is a picture of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem that I took on my last pilgrimage to Israel in November 2022. This weekend the Church pauses to celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It may sound unusual—why would we “exalt” an instrument of torture and death?  But the Cross is not simply a piece of wood. It is the sign of our salvation, the throne of God’s love, the place where Jesus gave His life for the world. The roots of this feast go back to the early centuries of Christianity.  Tradition tells us that in the year 326, St. Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with one goal in mind: to find the true Cross of Christ.  She searched tirelessly, questioned the locals, and finally discovered the very place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead.  Constantine built a great church over that site—the Church of the Holy Sepulcher—which still stands in Jerusalem to...

 A friend of mine in New York told me this story. One weekend, her sister and another friend came to visit. They spent the whole weekend sightseeing—Times Square, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty—the works. On Sunday morning, they stepped into a beautiful old church just to take a look around. But as they were walking down the aisle, the bells started ringing and Mass was about to begin. My friend and her sister looked at each other. “Let’s stay for Mass,” they said. Their other friend stopped in her tracks. “Mass? Now? We’re in New York City! We don’t have time for that—we’ve got places to go!” But the sisters stood firm. “No. This is important to us. We’re staying.” And so they stayed for Mass. Their friend was upset—angry even—but they chose Jesus first. It’s a small moment, but it says a lot. Sometimes, following Jesus means making choices that others—even people close to us—don’t understand. That’s what makes today’s Gospel so challenging. Jesus says, “If anyone come...