Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross 2025

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 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 today. 

From that time, the Church has lifted high the Cross, not as a reminder of death, but as the greatest sign of life.

Our readings today all point to this mystery. 

In the first reading from Numbers, the people of Israel are dying from the bites of poisonous serpents. 

God tells Moses to mount a bronze serpent on a pole, and those who looked at it were healed. That serpent lifted up became a sign of God’s saving power.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” 

He is speaking of the Cross. 


And then comes the verse we all know so well: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.”

The Cross is the proof of God’s love. It is the place where sin and death were conquered, where mercy was poured out, where salvation was won.

But here’s the question for us: St. Helena went looking for the Cross in Jerusalem. Are we looking for the Cross in our lives? Or do we spend most of our time trying to avoid it?

The Cross shows up in many forms: 
-the illness that tests our patience, 
-the work that drains our strength, 
-the forgiveness that is so hard to give, 
-the service that demands sacrifice. 

The Cross is present in the poor, in the lonely, in the wounded people we meet every day. If we have the eyes of faith, we can find the Cross—and when we do, we find Christ.

To exalt the Cross means to lift it high, not to hide it away. 

St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading that Jesus “humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him.” 

The Cross is not the end of the story. It is the pathway to resurrection and glory.

So, let us look for the Cross this week. 

Not to wallow in suffering, but to discover love. 

Not to be crushed, but to be lifted up. 

Because wherever the Cross is, Christ is. And wherever Christ is, there is life.

By the wood of the Cross, joy has entered the world. 

Let us lift high the Cross, and let our lives be living witnesses that God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son.


Location: Morrisonville, NY, USA

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