Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Each year on September 14, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a day dedicated to honoring the instrument of our salvation. While Good Friday commemorates the Passion and death of Christ, this feast emphasizes the glory and triumph of the Cross, the very means by which our redemption was won. The Cross is not simply a symbol of suffering, but the sign of God’s victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ.

Historically, the feast dates back to the early fourth century. After Christianity was legalized by Emperor Constantine, his mother, St. Helena, journeyed to the Holy Land and is said to have discovered the True Cross around the year 326. A basilica was built over Calvary and the tomb of Christ, dedicated on September 14, 335. Each year, the Church celebrated the dedication of this holy site, and over time, the day became a universal feast honoring the victory of Christ through His Cross.

The Cross is often called the “tree of life.” In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were barred from the tree of life after their fall (cf. Genesis 3:22–24), a sign that sin had broken communion with God. But in Christ, the new Adam, the Cross becomes the true tree of life, restoring access to eternal life that had been lost. As the Catechism teaches, “The cross is the true tree of life” (CCC 1137). What once brought death, the tree in Eden, has been overcome by the new tree, the Cross of Christ, which brings eternal life.

The Fathers of the Church often marveled at this reversal. Where the first tree was the place of disobedience, the Cross is the place of perfect obedience. Where the fruit of the first tree brought death, the “fruit” of the Cross, Christ’s own body, brings salvation. In venerating the Cross, we do not glory in suffering itself, but in the love that transforms suffering into redemption.

This feast also calls each of us to embrace our own daily crosses in union with Christ. As Jesus Himself taught, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). As we embrace our own crosses we unite them with Christ’s and share in the fruit of the tree of life. Each Mass brings us to this tree anew, where heaven and earth meet. May we lift high the Cross not as a sign of shame, but as the throne of Christ’s glory and the very source of our life in Him.