Sep 14th, 2025: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (John 3:13-17)
I have four grandchildren. And I know this will come as a shock to many of you, but these four really are the most beautiful grandchildren in the world. Now, I know you think your grandchildren are the most beautiful, but…you’re wrong.
And, even as beautiful as my grandchildren are…I hate to say it, but they are not always perfectly behaved. In fact, there is one in particular who, very recently, was at our house on the deck. She was having what some would call “a moment” – somewhat of a breakdown. And in the middle of this breakdown, she started backing up toward the steps on the deck. Now, there are two steps, and at the bottom of the steps there is a concrete patio – I know this because I built the steps myself – and as she was in this “moment”, this “breakdown”, she was backing up toward the steps, I said to her “Wait a minute, stop, you’re going to fall down the steps”. Oh, but she was heavily into it. There was significant drama involved, and she wasn’t hearing anything I said. Not because she couldn’t hear me, but because she chose not to listen, and as a result, she chose her consequences.
Today’s readings offer a similar scenario: We get to choose. The readings are woven together very well, and they tie perfectly to today’s feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of Christ.
In today’s first reading, we heard about the Israelites in the desert complaining. So, as punishment God sent Saraph Serpents. Saraph means fiery: so, the serpents had fiery or painful bites. And we heard in the reading that many of the Israelites were bitten and many of them died. The way the Israelites were healed or saved from death after having been bitten by the serpents, was to stop complaining, look at the serpent on the pole, and have faith that God would heal them. This is obviously a prefigurement of Jesus being lifted up on the cross, and our faith in him being our healing, not just for this life, but for eternal life.
(Side note: any time you hear Jesus say, “the Son of Man will be lifted up”, he means “lifted up on the cross”.)
Likewise, in the Psalm we hear: Do not forget the works of the Lord. In essence: Do not forget what the Lord has done for us. Again, referring to the cross of Jesus.
In the second reading we heard how Jesus “humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death…on a cross.
And then, in the Gospel, we hear the passage that we all know so well: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” John 3:16. It’s on bumper stickers, on coffee mugs, tee shirts, on signs at pro football games on TV on Sundays.
That cross is the single most important thing in the history of humankind! On it, God did give his only son…that we might have eternal life…if we accept it. We have a choice. We can choose to accept that salvation through our actions. Just like my granddaughter could have chosen to accept my help in keeping her from falling.
The footnote to this scripture passage says, “Some condemn themselves by turning away from the light (the light of Christ).” The good news – the Gospel – today is that God did send his only Son that we might have eternal life, and we can choose to follow him, to follow the light, instead of the darkness. But that’s not always an easy choice. There’s a reason the footnote says, “some condemn themselves by turning away from the light”, why some fall down the stairs and hit their head on the concrete, even when their help is right before the asking them to stop…and listen…and change direction.
The world will try with all it’s might to draw us away from Gods voice, away from the light. Evil does exist, and in the world, it will try to make us believe that we can’t really hear God’s voice; that the darkness is the better path. It will even make the darkness seem bright, and attractive, and sexy, and fun, and profitable. The world will try to convince us that we don’t need Christ’s forgiveness, or his Church, or his Eucharist. That our sin isn’t really all that bad. That those things the church says aren’t real, they’re just superstition.
And that sisters and brothers, is exactly why God sent his Son into the world, to accept death, even death on a cross. And why today, we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of that Holy Cross.
Oh, by the way, the good news for my granddaughter is that I was able to drop everything in my arms and catch her before she fell off the top of the steps onto the concrete.
The good news for us is that we have a God who was willing to drop everything and stretch out his arms for us. What he asks each of us is to reach out for him in return.