On Monday 14th September we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross which is an annual opportunity to reflect upon the Mystery of the Cross as the triumph of Our Lord over death and sin. To the human eye the Cross appeared to rather to be a moment of defeat. Yet on the Cross, God’s power was shown forth in weakness (cf. Phil. 2:8-9; 2 Cor. 12:9), as Jesus, who had become like unto us in all things but sin (Heb. 4:14), experienced suffering and pain to its ultimate depths, and he who was by right the first, the only-begotten of the Father, took the last place and became the most despised and humbled of men (cf. Isaiah 53:3); from this humiliation God exalted his Son, as his victory was manifested on Easter Day in the mystery of the resurrection. The date of this feast is connected to the dedication of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, but was extended to the universal church in later centuries.
Click here to read a homily of St John Paul II given at Mass on this feast during the course of the Pope’s 1998 visit to Lesotho. The Pope, who in his homily mentions the missionary priest Joseph Gérard, beatified this servant of God on the following day.