Growing up as a boy in Dodge City we often went to mass on Sunday to the Sacred Heart Cathedral.  When I began school we celebrated daily morning mass in the Cathedral.  One of the most impressive memories that I have of the Cathedral was the large mural that adorned the wall of the sanctuary behind the main altar.  This mural depicted the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ and was quite dramatic.  I remember as a boy spending a lot of time studying this beautiful but haunting image.  (Yes, my attention wasn’t always on the priest who was offering the mass).  This mural made quite an impact on me.  It seemed to me to depict that moment in which Jesus handed over his spirit to the Father and completed the sacrifice offered for the salvation of humanity.  Even though the mural was dark and dramatic it did not frighten me as a child, rather, it gave me a sense of deep peace and comfort.  Even as a little child I recognized that it represented an act of complete love and that something wonderful was happening in this picture.  I understood even then the victory that was being accomplished in this oblation of love.  There was a great power at work here, the power of love to conquer all fear.  I knew that this sacrifice of love had changed the world and I could imagine and picture myself among all the figures that surrounded the cross, looking up at the cross and at the crucified Christ on the cross (I always pictured myself as one of the persons standing in the huge crevice that had been formed by a large earthquake) and wondering in amazement at what this would mean for my life.

     When it came time for me to be ordained as a priest and to pick out a holy card to offer to people as a remembrance of my ordination, I chose the image of the cross that St. John of the Cross had drawn in his journal.  It is a unique image that is done in the perspective of someone who is holding a crucifix and gazing up at it.  It is certainly a fitting icon of the life and spirituality of St. John of the Cross.  Underneath the image is a quote from St. John of the Cross, “In the evening of life, we will be judged in love.”  I understood that my entire priesthood would be fruitful and gracious if I could keep that image of the cross always before me.  Much like St. Paul, I was determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  Everything else makes sense only in the light of the cross of Christ and its power to draw us from death into new life.

     This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Exaltation of the Cross.  It is an opportunity for us to celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ over death through the sacrifice on the cross.  On this day of the “Holy Rood”, we all can reflect upon the power that the image of the cross of Jesus Christ has on our lives.  How often have we gazed upon the cross of Christ?  How many times have we laid our burdens and our hopes down at the foot of that cross?  How many of our prayers to the Father have been begun with the sign of the cross?  How has the image of the cross affected our understanding of the depth and demands of love?  How many times have we been blessed (or blessed ourselves) by the sign of the cross?  The cross of Jesus was certainly a prominent image in our family home and certainly belongs in every Catholic home (I have a cross in my office, my living room, my study, my bedroom and of course my chapel).  As Jesus proclaims to us in the gospel today, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”  We must keep the cross of Christ ever before us.

     At many of the funerals that I celebrate (and there have been many) the final thing that I do at the graveside is to hand a crucifix to the family of the deceased.  The cross of Christ is a consolation to those who are mourning the loss of a loved one and is a reminder to us that death is not the final word.  The love of God has conquered death and opened a way for us into eternal life in heaven.  In the evening of life, the cross of Jesus Christ will triumph and we will not be judged harshly in anger and condemned but we will be judged in the light of the love that embraces us in the cross of Jesus and we will be saved through him.  Hang on to the cross and bear it with love and dignity as a sign of our great hope in the Lord.