John 3:13-17

Numbers 21:4b-9

Psalm 78:1bc-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38

Philippians 2:6-11

John 3:13-17

John 3:13-17

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

“No one has gone up to heaven

except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.

And just 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.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I am humbled by the immensity and depth of your love. You did not spare your own Son but sent him into the world to die for us and free us from the ancient curse of death. You love me with an everlasting love. Teach me to receive this love with gratitude and to return it through the gift of my life.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: Today we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The feast commemorates both the discovery of the relic of the True Cross by Saint Helena in A.D. 326 and its subsequent recovery from the Persians in the seventh century. The date of the feast is connected with the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on September 13, A.D. 335. The following day, September 14, the True Cross was publicly venerated and exalted. Centuries later, in A.D. 614, the Persian king Khosrau II captured Jerusalem and carried the relic of the Cross away as a trophy. After the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defeated the Persians, the relic was restored to Jerusalem in a solemn ceremony. The Church today does not celebrate the Cross merely as a historical relic. We exalt the Cross because upon it Christ offered himself for the salvation of the world. What appeared to be an instrument of shame and death became the instrument of redemption and life. The Cross reveals the depth of God's love: “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 

2. Looking Upon the Serpent: The First Reading takes us into the wilderness, where the Israelites have rebelled against God and are afflicted by poisonous serpents. When Moses intercedes for them, God commands him to make a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole: “Everyone who has been bitten, when he looks at it, will live” (Numbers 21:8). The bronze serpent is a striking image of the Cross. The very thing that represents the consequence of sin becomes, by God’s command, the means through which the people receive healing. Jesus himself draws out this connection when he says, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). The Israelites had to look upon the serpent. Likewise, we are called to look upon Christ crucified. We cannot follow Christ while refusing to confront the reality of sin, suffering, and death. The Cross does not pretend that these things are unreal or insignificant. Instead, Christ enters into them and transforms them from within. The Christian response to suffering is therefore neither despair nor denial. We bring our wounds, trials, temptations, and sins before the crucified Lord. We allow him to reveal their meaning in the light of his own Passion. Christ himself “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). By sharing in his suffering, we are gradually conformed to him and prepared to share in his resurrection and glory. 

3. The Way of the Cross is the Way of Exaltation: The Second Reading gives us the great Christological hymn from Philippians 2. It presents the mystery of Christ through a movement from humiliation to exaltation. Though existing in the form of God, Christ “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” and became obedient “to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). Therefore, God highly exalted him, and every creature will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The Cross stands at the center of this movement. Christ’s exaltation does not bypass his humiliation; it comes through it. His glory is revealed precisely in his self-emptying love. This is also the pattern of Christian discipleship. We are called to live as the people of the crucified and risen Lord. The Christian life is not ultimately a search for comfort, recognition, or worldly greatness. It is a participation in the self-giving love of Christ. As Paul writes elsewhere, “the life I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). The Cross therefore reveals both who Christ is and who we are called to become. The one who humbles himself in love is exalted by the Father. And those who unite themselves to Christ in his self-giving love will share in his glory.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you were lifted up on the Cross to forgive our sins and reconcile us with the Father. You were innocent, yet condemned; sinless, yet you bore our sins. Teach me to look upon your Cross with faith and gratitude. Give me the grace to share in your suffering, so that I may also share in your resurrection and exaltation.

Living the Word of God: When I look upon the crucifix, what do I see: my sin, suffering, condemnation, or the love of Christ poured out for me? What suffering, temptation, or wound do I need to bring honestly before the crucified Lord rather than avoid or deny? Can I spend time today contemplating the crucifix and asking Jesus to reveal more deeply the love he has shown me through his Cross?