The Feast of the Exaltation of the
Holy Cross
Cycle A
September 13-14, 2014 All Masses
Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air
Crucifixes
Four
years ago, we as a parish did some enhancements to the Callahan Center at Saint
Mary Magdalen.
We especially
wanted to make the sanctuary more of a distinctly sacred space. So, one of the things we did was to install a
crucifix – a cross with the image of the crucified Christ.
The
crucifix was carefully designed for the overall décor of that building. It has helped to make the space more
beautiful and spiritually inspiring.
We have
now completed some major work on Saint Margaret’s church. As you know, ninety percent of this work is
infrastructure – the roof, the air conditioning system, and the heating system.
With a
limited budget, we did one very visible renovation – the background of the
sanctuary. This includes a major change
to the walls and most especially the installation of a crucifix.
This
crucifix was also carefully designed for the building. I hope you will find it spiritually inspiring
when you see it next weekend.
Why a Crucifix?
Why
this emphasis on a crucifix?
Why is
the cross with the image of the crucified Christ so important for a Catholic church? This is a good thing to think about today, the
Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
I think
we can summarize the reason for a crucifix in one sentence. The Mass is a sacramental sacrifice – a
sacramental sacrifice.
A Sacramental Sacrifice – Part 1
I want to try to explain this.
We believe that Jesus gives himself for us fully on the
cross. Saint Paul in today’s second
reading says, “He emptied himself.”
Saint John in the gospel gives the motivation for this. “God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son.”
In Old Testament times, right up to the time of Jesus,
people would sacrifice an animal in the temple.
It may have been a goat or a lamb or a bird.
They would bring an animal that they valued and they would
sacrifice this to God. And they did this
for forgiveness of their sins and for reconciliation with God.
Now, in contrast to this, Jesus, on the cross, makes a
sacrifice of himself. He literally gives
up his life.
And he does this not for himself but for us, for our
forgiveness and our reconciliation with the Father. And of course, because of 1) who he is as the
Son of God and 2) what he does in giving of himself, this is now the perfect
sacrifice – there can be none greater.
A Sacramental Sacrifice – Part 2
There is one more crucial point.
The night before his crucifixion, Jesus gives us something
special. He is having dinner with the
apostles and he takes the bread and wine.
Jesus says: “This”
– the bread – “is my body” and “This” – the wine – “is my blood.” And very
important, he adds: “Do this in memory of
me.”
So Jesus gives us a way to remember and make present over
and over again his sacrifice on the cross.
We call this a sacrament.
In other words, Jesus intends these signs of bread and
wine to make his sacrifice and to make him really present here and now. This is what we mean by sacramental
sacrifice.
Jesus tells us to do this not because his sacrifice is
imperfect or unfinished. Rather, we do this
because we are imperfect and unfinished.
This is why Jesus invites those at the Last Supper and invites
us today to receive the consecrated bread and wine, his body and blood. This gift of Communion allows the life and
love of God that we see in Jesus on the cross to enter us more and more fully.
The Crucifix and the Altar
In the Eucharistic
Prayer that I will pray this afternoon, there are these beautiful words: “May this Sacrifice of our reconciliation,
we pray O Lord, advance the peace and salvation of all the world.”
“This Sacrifice of
our reconciliation” – that is the heart of Jesus’ action on the cross and
the heart of the Mass. That is why the
crucifix is so central to us and why it is to be so prominent near our altar.
