September 14 – The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Feast)

Antiphons at Lauds - Psalms of Sunday of the 1st week

1. Christ, with his death on the cross, has brought to nil the powers of hell; he has been clothed with power and has been raised on the third day.

2. The holy cross shines forth, as it is on it that the Lord has met his death as a person, and it is by means of his blood that he cleansed us from our faults.

3. The merciful cross by which the world has been saved shines out in full glory: the cross is victorious and reigns and deletes all sin, Alleluia.

Heb. 2, 9-10

We are now seeing Jesus crowned with glory and honour because he submitted to death, so that, by God’s grace, his passing through death may benefit all humanity. For it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should, while bringing many sons to glory, make perfect through suffering the author of their salvation.

Brethren, I am through the law dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness were to come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, ‘Have you received the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Have you begun in the Spirit and are now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be indeed in vain. He, therefore, that ministers to you the Spirit and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Even as ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness,’ let it be therefore known to you that those who are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, ‘Cursed is any one who hangs on a tree’, so that through Jesus Christ the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails any thing, nor the lack of circumcision, but only a new creature is worthy. As many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and upon the Israel of God.

The origin of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross dates back to the 14^th September, 335 when there took place the dedication of Constantine's basilica which enclosed both Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre. "At this day," says Etheriam "the cross was discovered. And the anniversary is celebrated with as much solemnity as Easter or the Epiphany."

Jesus said: "When I shall be raised on high, I shall draw everything unto Me". It is because the Saviour had humbled Himself, being obedient even to the death of the cross, that God exalted Him and gave Him a name above all other names. Wherefore we must glory in the cross of Jesus, for He is our life and our salvation and He protects his servants against the wiles of their enemies.

When the King of Persia took Jerusalem in the 7^th century, he carried off the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which St Helen had placed on mount Calvary, to Persia. Later, Heraclius had recourse to many fasts and prayers and, imploring with great fervour the help of an army, defeated the Persians. He insisted on the restitution of the cross of the Lord and the precious relic was recovered in an interval of 14 years.

On his return to Jerusalem in 629, Heraclius carried the Cross on his shoulders in great pomp to the mountain where the Saviour Himself had borne it. Then, an extraordinary miracle marked the occasion. Loaded with ornaments of gold and precious stones, Heraclius was held back by an invincible force at the entrance gate of mount Calvary despite all his vain efforts to enter. As the Emperor and all those who witnessed the scene were astonished, Zacharias, bishop of Jerusalem, said to him: "Consider, oh Emperor, that with these triumphal ornaments you are far from imitating the poverty of Jesus Christ and His humility in bearing His cross." Heraclius thereupon put off his splendid garb and walked barefoot with a common cloak on his shoulders to Calvary, where he again deposited the cross.

In the Church of the Holy Cross at Rome, the faithful venerate on its feastday the relics of the sacred wood exposed for the occasion.

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