September 15. 2025

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Exaltation of The Holy Cross

 

-Death surrounds us / We mourn this week: Death on a subway, at a public talk in Utah, at a school Mass, all while remembering those who died on 9/11, 2001.

 

-Perhaps it’s providential timing that one death stands above them all / That brings the world hope / Sunday we celebrate the most recognized death in history / Jesus Christ, Son of God / We celebrate the power of His Holy Cross.

 

-For most people throughout history, we don’t know, off the top of our heads, how they died / Many people impacted my life (Churchill, Priests, Teachers) / But how did they die? / Most everyone knows how Jesus died / The Cross is one of the most recognized symbols in history.

 

-Theologians and mystics argue that time itself collapses around this one sacrifice & death in history / Which we plug into at every Mass / This one death changed the world as Jesus entered death and conquered it / Saying I now give you eternity and Hope (Thank you Chris Stefanick for your help in forming the thoughts above).

 

Our Sunday Readings:

-Numbers:[1]  Notice how when the people looked up at the bronze serpent raised-up in the desert / They were healed of their infirmities & sickness / John tells us this foreshadows the Cross.

-John:[2]  “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert / So must the Son of Man be lifted up / So whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.”

-Jesus’ lifted high on the cross heals us of our infirmities & sickness due to sin.

-Saint Paul[3] : “He humbled Himself / Becoming Obedient to death / Even death on a cross / Because of this God highly exalted Him.”

 

-Let the Exaltation of the Cross point us to God’s power to transform even our worst sufferings and allow them—like His cross—to be redeemed by Grace and God’s ultimate good.

 

-Let's talk about the cross:

-Then Jesus took Peter aside and began to rebuke him,

 -Peter wanted Jesus to deny His Cross – no pain or suffering please.

-Jesus said to Peter, “You are an obstacle to me -You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

 

-We will not always understand situations – why certain things happen.

-But God has the power to always bring about a greater good.

-We can't limit ourselves to thinking in terms of this world.

 

It is easy to resist or just get angry with a cross.

-But with patience and trust things can be revealed through the cross.

 

-My mother’s suffering and death led to a beautiful gift for me.

-My mother made many sacrifices for her family - she must be pleased to know that her suffering led to affirming my vocation to the priesthood, because through her cross – she gave life to me - I learned the beauty of sacrificial love in carrying my cross.

-And my mother’s 10 years of suffering finally ended.

-We will have crosses. We will experience death. Yet:

 

-John always sees Glory in the cross. Glory will always follow the cross for those who believe and persevere / That is what I believe my mother received as her prize / Glory.

 

-What we do in this life matters, it not only impacts and fills others with Grace - but through charity, we are filled with Grace.

 

-True sacrificial love embraces the cross.

-Love and the cross are the same thing / They are inseparable / Love, like the cross, is defined by the act of laying down our lives sacrificially for the other.

 

-Where there is no cross, there is no love.

-Ask our married couples.

 

-Self-sacrifice for others cleanses, renews and fulfills us.

 

“The sign of the cross is the most terrible weapon against the devil. It reminds us just what our souls are worth to Jesus Christ.” / How much Jesus loves us and was and is willing to sacrifice to set us free from sin and the fear of death / To give us Hope when a loved one dies / THANK YOU JESUS!

 

-Fr. Tom Colucci’s Priestly Vocation is a light emanating from the darkness of the September 11, 2001 / Tom was a part of (FDNY) Engine 3, Ladder 12 & Battalion 7 firehouse in Chelsea, Manhattan / After the darkness of 9/11 he was later called to the Priesthood.

 

Vivat Jesus,

Father Vic Gournas

 [1]

 

 

 [3]