{"id":20125,"date":"2020-09-14T05:25:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T09:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/?p=20125"},"modified":"2020-10-31T15:20:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T19:20:02","slug":"celebrating-and-sharing-in-jesus-triumph-exaltation-of-the-cross-september-14-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/celebrating-and-sharing-in-jesus-triumph-exaltation-of-the-cross-september-14-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating and Sharing in Jesus&#8217; Triumph, Exaltation of the Cross, September 14, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fr. Roger J. Landry<br \/>\nVisitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan<br \/>\nFeast of the Exaltation of the Cross<br \/>\nSeptember 14, 2020<br \/>\nNum 21:4-9, Ps 78, Phil 2:6-11, Jn 3:13-17<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>To listen to an audio recording of this homily,\u00a0please click below:\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-20125-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9.14.20-Homily-1.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9.14.20-Homily-1.mp3\">https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9.14.20-Homily-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>The following points were attempted in the homily:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Today we celebrate what Saint John Paul II used to call <em>the<\/em> symbol of Christianity. We marked ourselves with it upon entering the Church. We began Mass with it. We\u2019ll end Mass with it. We start almost every time of prayer with it. Probably every one of our bedrooms and dining rooms has one in it. All types of people wear it around their necks, from the Pope and bishops, to teenage pop stars, to newly baptized babies. The priest holds his arms in the shape of it during the Eucharistic prayer. And it is the center and focal point of every Catholic Church. We are talking about the Cross. The Cross is the greatest summary of our faith. St. Francis of Assisi used to call it his \u201cbook,\u201d where he learned all of his wisdom. The Cross is also the key that opens the doors of heaven. St. Rose of Lima, the first saint of the Americas, said, \u201cApart from the Cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.\u201d If we wish to get to eternal life with God, we must climb up with Jesus by means of the Cross.<\/li>\n<li>To non-believers, to celebrate the feast of the Cross makes no sense at all. It is sheer lunacy. To those who don\u2019t believe, the Cross is exclusively a symbol of pain and horrible death. Crucifixion was the worst and most cruel end imaginable in the ancient world. The modern day equivalent would be the electric chair. To celebrate or \u201cexalt\u201d the Cross would be akin to our \u201clifting up the electric chair\u201d in jubilation. To center every Church with an image of Christ\u2019s suffering on the Cross would be similar to constructing a place of worship in which one would put a gruesome image of someone convulsing and dying in an electric chair or placing a sculpture of someone being burned at the stake. We\u2019ve become so used to seeing the Cross that we\u2019ve become somewhat anaesthetized to the normal shock that should be any person\u2019s first reaction to it and we need to recover a little of the initial human horror we should have before the Cross.\u00a0This is one reason why St. Paul wrote that Christ on the Cross is \u201ca stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.\u201d The pagans used to mock the early Christians for worshipping someone who was killed on the Cross, who suffered such a horrible, ignoble end. Because that derision was still happening even centuries after his death, many of the first Christians were somewhat embarrassed by the Cross and didn\u2019t use it as a popular Christian symbol until the 300s. Today, there are still some Christians who are embarrassed by the Cross. We see it in those Catholic schools and universities who have removed the Cross from classrooms lest anyone be \u201coffended.\u201d We\u2019ve seen it in Catholic hospitals who have removed them from patients\u2019 rooms even though in the hospital people need to derive meaning from their sufferings from uniting them to Christ\u2019s. We\u2019ve seen them in various \u201cmodern\u201d Catholic parishes that, instead of putting up a Crucifix in the sanctuary as is required in every Church, they erect an image of the Risen Jesus, as if that \u201cbook\u201d of St. Francis no longer had anything to teach.<\/li>\n<li>The Cross, for believers, is not so much a symbol of pain, but rather of the Love that made even that much suffering worth it. Jesus said during the Last Supper, \u201cNo one has any greater love than to lay down his life for his friends\u201d and that\u2019s precisely what Jesus as our Good Shepherd did when he gave his own life on the Cross so that we, might live. The Cross is a picture not principally of agonizing suffering but of this mind-blowing love of God for us. St. Paul \u2014 after he stated that the Cross is a scandal to the Jews and a folly to everyone else \u2014 declared that \u201cto those who are called, the Crucified Christ is the \u2018power of God and the wisdom of God.\u2019\u201d Christ on the cross manifests the power of Christ\u2019s love and the wisdom of God\u2019s plan of salvation.<\/li>\n<li>In today\u2019s Gospel, St. John tells us, \u201cGod so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.\u201d As one great mystic said, each of Jesus\u2019s five wounds are like a pair of lips saying, \u201cI love you this much!\u201d God\u2019s love was so great that he was willing to bear such torture and death for each of us. St. Paul tells us in the second reading that even though Jesus was God, \u201che didn\u2019t deem equality with God something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave\u2026\u00a0And being born in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death, death on a Cross.\u201d The Cross is the great sign of God\u2019s kenotic humility. Real love is willing to do anything for the beloved, and God was willing not just to come down from heaven and take on our human nature, but to allow those he created, those he was about to redeem, to torture, abuse and kill him in order to save them and us. Jesus was willing out of love to undergo everything we might undergo as human beings, even worse. Whatever pain we might suffer, Christ suffered more. Whatever injustice we might bear, Christ bore it before us. Whatever loneliness we experience, Jesus felt it, too. This is what led the writer of the Letter of the Hebrews to exclaim one of the most consoling truths in all of Sacred Scripture: \u201cWe do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every way that we are, yet never sinned.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The reason why the Church gives us this Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross is not just so that we may look at the Cross physically and ponder its meaning spiritually. It\u2019s not so that we remain stunned at beholding the One we have pierced. When we truly confront the reality of the Cross, we cannot remain a detached bystander. On Good Friday, as you know, we all process up the nave humbly without shoes, genuflect and venerate the Cross with a kiss. In order truly to venerate the Cross, however, we need to do more than just kiss it. We need to <em>embrace<\/em> it as a way of life. That\u2019s what Jesus clearly <em>wants<\/em> us to do and <em>calls<\/em> us to do. He never said to us, \u201cI\u2019m taking up the Cross so that you don\u2019t have to.\u201d Rather he said, \u201cIf you wish to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, pick up your Cross every day, and follow me\u201d and \u201cwhoever does not pick up the Cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.\u201d We\u2019re here because we want to be true disciples of the Lord. We want to follow him all the way to heaven. But to do this, we need to follow him to Calvary; we need to walk the Way of the Cross. As St. Rose of Lima told us earlier, there is no other ladder to heaven but the ladder of the Cross. To be a disciple means to embrace the Cross.<\/li>\n<li>To embrace the way of the Cross means first to forsake the way of sin because we see what our sins have done. In today\u2019s first reading, after the Jews were unfaithful in the desert, God sent among them poisonous saraph serpents, which led the Israelites to remember that just like Adam and Eve had gone the way of sin by means of the machinations of the devil in the disguise of a serpent, so, too, they had forsaken the Lord. The people turned to Moses to intercede for them with God to save their lives. Moses prayed and God had him make a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole, saying that whoever looked at this serpent on a pole would live. They were going to have to face-up to what was killing them, that they had chosen to follow the way of sin, and after having acknowledged that and having turn prayerfully to God for forgiveness they would be saved. That was a prophetic act foretelling what would happen with Jesus on the Cross. Jesus said in today\u2019s Gospel, \u201cJust 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.\u201d Just as with the snake bitten Israelites in the desert, so we have been bitten by the poison of sin, we have negotiated with the ancient serpent and chosen against God. We need to come face-to-face with our own sins, seeing what they did to Jesus, and then with real contrition turn to the Lord for salvation. We do this not just as an antidote to the poison in the moment of suffering, but to lead us through the desert of life all the way to the eternal repose. To embrace the way of the Cross means to reject the life of sin and commit ourselves to following the life of grace.<\/li>\n<li>The second thing that embracing the Cross means is that it commits us to the path of self-sacrificial love. Many Catholics when they hear Jesus\u2019 command to deny ourselves, pick up our Cross and follow Jesus think that it means \u201coffering up\u201d their hardships, their difficulties, their pain, and bearing with peaceful resignation the contradictions of the day. That is part of it, but, actually, a small part of it. To embrace the Cross means to kiss Christ\u2019s love and to imitate it. Jesus said, in the greatest of all commandments, \u201cLove one another as I have loved you.\u201d Picking up our Cross and following the Lord means following him down the path of selfless self-giving love. Jesus, in fact, gives us the Cross so that we, like him, might <em>die<\/em> on it, die to ourselves for others, so that he might live fully in us and love others through us. That point is a crucial one, so I\u2019ll repeat it: the Lord gave us the Cross so that we might die to ourselves on it and <em>allow him to live in us so that his self-sacrificial love might reign in us<\/em>. This is exactly what St. Paul pointed to when he wrote to the Galatians, \u201cI have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.\u201d We want Christ to live in us and Christ himself wants to live in us, but the only way that happens is to be crucified with him through the gift of the Cross. The most beautiful reality is that when we do this, we not only abide in Christ and he in us \u2014\u00a0and share in the fullness of salvation \u2014 but we become co-redeemers with Christ. St. Paul was alluding to this reality when he said to the first Christians in Colossae, \u201cIn my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ\u2019s sufferings for the sake of his body, that is, the church.\u201d Christ\u2019s sacrifice on the Cross \u2014 which saved the world \u2014 always intended to be united to our sacrifices united with him on the Cross. That\u2019s what occurs when we really live as his disciples, picking up our Crosses every day, dying to ourselves on them, and allowing the Risen Christ to live in us and to unite ourselves to his redemptive work.<\/li>\n<li>To some this might seem like a new mystery or something too theologically deep, but it is a reality that we have been <em>living<\/em> for as long as we have been Catholic. It is a reality that began on the day we were baptized, when we were marked by the priest, our parents and our godparents with the Sign of the Cross and then sacramentally died in Christ and he rose from the dead within us. The Christian life is a school of the Cross from our first day as a Christian; the Cross of Jesus that we carry within is at the heart of the mystery of God\u2019s love and of our faith. The actual feast of the Exaltation of the Cross comes from the year 629 when the Emperor Heraclius recovered the relics of the True Cross that had been stolen by the Persians and brought them back to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Even though there had previously been a celebration of the Cross of the Lord in Jerusalem (on May 3), the celebration on September 14 was a particular thanksgiving to God for the finding of the Cross, which they had come to appreciate even more during the 15 years it was in Persian custody. I like to think that it is an annual feast for us to &#8220;rediscover&#8221; the central importance of the Cross, to thank God for what Jesus accomplished on it, and to seek to be lifted up by him on it.<\/li>\n<li>The early Christians used to say and sing, \u201c<em>Ave, O Crux, Spes Unica<\/em>!,\u201d \u201cHail, O Cross, our Only Hope.\u201d The cross is our only hope in two ways. First, because without Christ\u2019s sacrificial triumph on the Cross, we would have no hope of eternal salvation; and second, because unless we pick up our Cross every day to unite ourselves to God, we have no hope of salvation either. The Cross is the world\u2019s greatest love story but we need to grasp that we are a central character in that romance. The message of the love of the Cross that we receive and share, we\u2019re called to proclaim from the rooftops. It\u2019s the most important message we can preach because it is the summary and essence of the Gospel. St. Paul, the greatest evangelist who ever lived, after many eloquent homilies, had a conversion. As he wrote to the Corinthians, \u201cWhen I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to preach nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.\u201d To preach Christ crucified, this incredible reality of God\u2019s love, is our common mission. In one of the great Catholic hymns sing: \u201cLift High the Cross, the Love of Christ proclaim, until all the world adore his holy name!\u201d And we lift it highest, we proclaim it most eloquently, when we live it most! And insofar as the vast majority of the human race is not yet adoring Christ\u2019s holy name, we need to lift it higher and proclaim it more loudly in loving deeds than we ever have until now.<\/li>\n<li>The greatest way for us to be strengthened in living the mystery of the Cross is here at the Mass, in which we share live in the sacrifice of Christ that began at the Last Supper and was consummated on the Cross, when he gave his body and his blood for us and our salvation. To celebrate the Mass is to exalt the Cross, to echo Jesus\u2019 words \u201cThis is my body,\u201d \u201cThis is my blood,\u201d \u201cgiven for you.\u201d I always linked the Eucharist and Calvary on this Feast because I\u2019ve had the privilege, probably about 20 times now, of celebrating Mass on Calvary within the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. There\u2019s no \u201cMass\u201d of Good Friday and so priests always celebrate there today\u2019s Mass. How moving it is to receive at Mass the fruit that comes from the new Tree of Life, which is the Cross! There\u2019s a beautiful phrase in the Preface for this Mass on which I\u2019ve meditated often there where it happened: \u201cFor you placed the salvation of the human race on the wood of the Cross so that, where death arose, life might again spring forth and the evil one, who conquered on a tree, might likewise on a tree be conquered!\u201d That is what we mark with joy, as we ponder\u00a0the happiest Person who ever lived at the supreme moment of his triumph, the joy of one who made eternal life possible for us whom he loved. \u00a0The connection between the Cross and the Mass ia indelibly impressed upon a priest on the day of his priestly ordination. Right after he has become a priest by the bishop\u2019s laying on of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, the new priest kneels in front of his bishop, who puts in his hands the chalice and paten with bread and says: \u201cReceive the oblation of the holy people to be offered to God. Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord\u2019s cross.\u201d The latter part of that prayer is an instruction applicable to each of us. <em>Understand what you do<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 we\u2019re about to enter into the greatest reality a human being can share, as we prepare to receive the fruit of the Tree of the Cross, Jesus himself. <em>Imitate what you celebrate<\/em> \u2014\u00a0which is the call to live the Eucharist, to become whom we eat, to emulate the self-giving love enfleshed in the Eucharist. And finally: <em>Conform your life to the mystery of the Lord\u2019s Cross<\/em>. Today God wants to give us the help he knows we need to base our entire existence on the love we celebrate on the Cross, so that we may not only experience in this world a foretaste of Christ\u2019s victory upon this new Tree of Life, but come by his grace to be exalted together with him upon it eternally. Today as we prepare for that dual exaltation, we make our own today\u2019s Alleluia verse that we\u2019re accustomed to say as we pray the Way of the Cross: \u00a0\u201cWe adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, for by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world!\u201d This is what we celebrate today. <em>Ave, O Crux, Spes Unica!<\/em> Amen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>The readings for today\u2019s Mass were:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"bibleReadingsWrapper\">\n<h4>Reading 1<br \/>\n<a id=\"\/bible\/numbers\/21:4|\" href=\"http:\/\/usccb.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b927174dbe854683d4b527f98&amp;id=1e5b8176b1&amp;e=b55e3798ee\">nm 21:4b-9<\/a><\/h4>\n<div class=\"poetry\">With their patience worn out by the journey,<br \/>\nthe people complained against God and Moses,<br \/>\n\u201cWhy have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,<br \/>\nwhere there is no food or water?<br \/>\nWe are disgusted with this wretched food!\u201d<br \/>\nIn punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,<br \/>\nwhich bit the people so that many of them died.<br \/>\nThen the people came to Moses and said,<br \/>\n\u201cWe have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.<br \/>\nPray the LORD to take the serpents from us.\u201d<br \/>\nSo Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,<br \/>\n\u201cMake a saraph and mount it on a pole,<br \/>\nand if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live.\u201d<br \/>\nMoses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,<br \/>\nand whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent<br \/>\nlooked at the bronze serpent, he lived.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bibleReadingsWrapper\">\n<h4>Responsorial Psalm<br \/>\n<a id=\"\/bible\/psalms\/78:1|\" href=\"http:\/\/usccb.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b927174dbe854683d4b527f98&amp;id=98a0cd374d&amp;e=b55e3798ee\">ps 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38<\/a><\/h4>\n<div class=\"poetry\">R. (see 7b)\u00a0<strong>Do not forget the works of the Lord!<\/strong><br \/>\nHearken, my people, to my teaching;<br \/>\nincline your ears to the words of my mouth.<br \/>\nI will open my mouth in a parable,<br \/>\nI will utter mysteries from of old.<br \/>\nR.<strong>\u00a0Do not forget the works of the Lord!<\/strong><br \/>\nWhile he slew them they sought him<br \/>\nand inquired after God again,<br \/>\nRemembering that God was their rock<br \/>\nand the Most High God, their redeemer.<br \/>\nR.<strong>\u00a0Do not forget the works of the Lord!<\/strong><br \/>\nBut they flattered him with their mouths<br \/>\nand lied to him with their tongues,<br \/>\nThough their hearts were not steadfast toward him,<br \/>\nnor were they faithful to his covenant.<br \/>\nR.\u00a0<strong>Do not forget the works of the Lord!<\/strong><br \/>\nBut he, being merciful, forgave their sin<br \/>\nand destroyed them not;<br \/>\nOften he turned back his anger<br \/>\nand let none of his wrath be roused.<br \/>\nR.\u00a0<strong>Do not forget the works of the Lord!<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>Reading 2<br \/>\n<a id=\"\/bible\/philippians\/2:6|\" href=\"http:\/\/usccb.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=b927174dbe854683d4b527f98&amp;id=71af643850&amp;e=b55e3798ee\">phil 2:6-11<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>Brothers and sisters:<br \/>\nChrist Jesus, though he was in the form of God,<br \/>\ndid not regard equality with God something to be grasped.<br \/>\nRather, he emptied himself,<br \/>\ntaking the form of a slave,<br \/>\ncoming in human likeness;<br \/>\nand found human in appearance,<br \/>\nhe humbled himself,<br \/>\nbecoming obedient to death,<br \/>\neven death on a cross.<br \/>\nBecause of this, God greatly exalted him<br \/>\nand bestowed on him the name<br \/>\nthat is above every name,<br \/>\nthat at the name of Jesus<br \/>\nevery knee should bend,<br \/>\nof those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,<br \/>\nand every tongue confess that<br \/>\nJesus Christ is Lord,<br \/>\nto the glory of God the Father.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bibleReadingsWrapper\">\n<h4>Gospel<br \/>\n<a id=\"\/bible\/john\/3:13|\" href=\"http:\/\/usccb.us8.list-manage1.com\/track\/click?u=b927174dbe854683d4b527f98&amp;id=c330c60590&amp;e=b55e3798ee\">jn 3:13-17<\/a><\/h4>\n<div class=\"poetry\">Jesus said to Nicodemus:<br \/>\n\u201cNo one has gone up to heaven<br \/>\nexcept the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.<br \/>\nAnd just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,<br \/>\nso must the Son of Man be lifted up,<br \/>\nso that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.\u201d<br \/>\nFor God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,<br \/>\nso that everyone who believes in him might not perish<br \/>\nbut might have eternal life.<br \/>\nFor God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,<br \/>\nbut that the world might be saved through him.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-14-at-9.52.34-PM.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20126\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-14-at-9.52.34-PM.png?resize=224%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_6731\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-20125-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9.14.20-Homily-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9.14.20-Homily-1.mp3\">https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9.14.20-Homily-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9.14.20-Homily-1.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/?powerpress_pinw=20125-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/9.14.20-Homily-1.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"9.14.20-Homily-1.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fr. Roger J. Landry Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross September 14, 2020 Num 21:4-9, Ps 78, Phil 2:6-11, Jn 3:13-17 &nbsp; To listen to an audio recording of this homily,\u00a0please click below:\u00a0 &nbsp; The following points were attempted in the homily:\u00a0 Today we celebrate what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11775,1063,3,12314,4],"tags":[6400,8689,1795,5971,657,6694,516,6695,6697,2558,8402,2093,658,305,11660,1761,1700,6696,2543,6691,6693,2856,2220,2556,5574,1423,6692],"class_list":["post-20125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-2020-year-ii","category-audio-homily","category-homily","category-podcast","category-year-ii","tag-ave-o-crux","tag-ave-o-crux-spes-unica","tag-cross","tag-crucifix","tag-exaltation-of-the-cross","tag-folly-to-gentiles","tag-jn-313-17","tag-kiss-the-cross","tag-lift-high-the-cross","tag-lourdes","tag-model-your-life-on-the-mystery-of-the-lords-cross","tag-moses","tag-num-214-9","tag-phil-26-11","tag-pick-up-your-cross-and-follow-me","tag-pope-benedict","tag-pope-francis","tag-priestly-ordination","tag-ps-78","tag-saraph-serpents","tag-scandal-to-jews","tag-sign-of-the-cross","tag-spes-unica","tag-st-bernadette","tag-st-john-paul-ii","tag-st-paul","tag-st-rose-of-lima"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Celebrating and Sharing in Jesus&#039; Triumph, Exaltation of the Cross, September 14, 2020 - Catholic Preaching<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/celebrating-and-sharing-in-jesus-triumph-exaltation-of-the-cross-september-14-2020\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrating and Sharing in Jesus&#039; Triumph, Exaltation of the Cross, September 14, 2020 - Catholic Preaching\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fr. Roger J. Landry Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross September 14, 2020 Num 21:4-9, Ps 78, Phil 2:6-11, Jn 3:13-17 &nbsp; To listen to an audio recording of this homily,\u00a0please click below:\u00a0 &nbsp; The following points were attempted in the homily:\u00a0 Today we celebrate what [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/celebrating-and-sharing-in-jesus-triumph-exaltation-of-the-cross-september-14-2020\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic Preaching\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-14T09:25:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-31T19:20:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/catholicpreaching.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-14-at-9.52.34-PM.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. 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