Today’s feast of the Exaltation of the Cross includes a wonderful reading in the Office written by St. Andrew of Crete. I have translated a segment below from the Italian text I use.
We celebrate the feast of the holy cross by which darkness is scattered and light returns. We celebrate the feast of the holy cross, and thus, we are exalted and sublimated along with the Crucified One. We distance ourselves from the world of sin and we rise to the heights…. In it resides our complete salvation. It is the means and the way to return to our original state.
If there were not the cross, there would not be Christ crucified. If there were not the cross, Life would not have been affixed to the wood. If Life would not have been nailed to the wood, from his side would not have flowed those sources of immortality, blood and water, that purify the world. The sentence of condemnation written for our sin would not have been written, we would not have been freed, we would not have been able to rejoice in the tree of life, paradise would not have been opened for us. If there were not the cross, hell would not have been defeated….
The cross is the glory of Christ, the exaltation of Christ. The cross is the precious and inestimable chalice that holds all the sufferings of Christ, it is the complete synthesis of his passion.
Keep a crucifix within sight wherever you may find yourself frequently spending time, especially in the rooms of your home, in your office, and in your car. Look at it often. On it hung your savior and brother Jesus. You were on his shoulders that day, that first Good Friday. Say a prayer of thanksgiving…..
