Today, the Universal Church celebrates the Feast of Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It is one of twelve “Master feasts” celebrated in the Church to honor Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. This feast is celebrated to remember both the first installation of the remnants of the True Cross of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at Mount Calvary on September 14, 335 AD and its reinstallation on September 14, 630 A.D. The original cross on which Jesus was crucified was excavated in A.D. 326 by a team led by St. Helena the mother of the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine. The Emperor built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Calvary, it was consecrated on September 14, 335, and the remains of the cross were installed in it by archbishop Makarios of Jerusalem. After three centuries, the Persians invaded Jerusalem, plundered all valuables and took with them the relic of the Holy Cross. In 630, Heraclius II defeated the Persians, recaptured the casket containing the holy relic and reinstalled it in the rebuilt Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The largest fragment of the Holy Cross is now kept in the Santa Croce church in Rome. We celebrate this feast of the Exaltation of the Cross for two reasons: (1) to understand the history of the discovery and recovery of the True Cross and (2) to appreciate better the importance of the symbol and reality of Christ’s sacrificial love, namely, the cross in the daily life of every Christian. According to a reliable legend accepted by early Fathers of the Church, when the Body of Jesus and those of the two thieves were removed from their crosses, the disciples buried the body of Jesus in the tomb donated by Nicodemus. As it was customary, the crosses of Jesus and the two thieves were buried in a pit dug close to the tomb. They remained there unnoticed till the forth century. In the fourth century, while the pagan commander Constantine the Great was in combat with Maxentius for the throne of the Roman Empire, AD 312, some of his Christian soldiers suggested that he pray to the God of the Christians to help him in his battle. In answer to his prayer, the sign of a luminous cross appeared in the sky with the words “IN THIS SIGN YOU WILL CONQUER inscribed on it. Following this, Constantine won the battle over Maxentius. Indebted to the God of Christians for his victory at the Milvian Bridge, October 28, AD 312, Constantine became a Christian catechumen. The Emperor issued the Edict of Milan (in 313), guaranteeing Christians religious tolerance throughout the Roman Empire. He declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and commanded that the sign of the cross be placed on all the Roman standards and on the shields of all the soldiers. At the request of the Patriarch of Jerusalem who participated in the Synod of Nicaea the Emperor Constantine sent a team to find out the true cross. On September 14, AD 327, a team of excavators, led by Constantine’s mother St. Helena, found below the temple of Venus at Calvary the True Cross on which Jesus had been crucified. The cross of Christ was identified by the miraculous healing given to a terminally sick lady when touched by the cross of Jesus. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Makarios, standing on a raised platform, lifted high the cross, “exalting” it, for all to see. The people fell to their knees, bowing down before the cross and crying out repeatedly: Lord, have mercy! To commemorate the finding of the Holy Cross, Constantine built and dedicated two Churches upon Calvary, Anastasis and Golgotha, both within the precincts of the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 355, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross was established in Jerusalem to commemorate St. Helena’s discovery of the true cross of Jesus. In AD 614, Chosroes II, the King of Persia, invaded Syria and Palestine and carried away many of the great treasures of Jerusalem, including the relic of the True Cross. In AD 628, Emperor Heraclius of Constantinople marched into Persia, recaptured the True Cross. He took the cross to Constantinople at first, then brought it back to Jerusalem on March 21, 630 walking barefoot and wearing sackcloth in penance. On September 14th, the Sacred Cross was restored to its place in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Anastasis) in Jerusalem. It was to commemorate this great event that the Church of Rome adopted the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 07:18:48 +0000
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