The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross invites us into one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith. On Good Friday, we stand before the Cross in sorrow, contemplating the suffering and death of Christ. Yet on this feast, the Church lifts high that same Cross, not as a symbol of pain, but as a source of life and victory. What was once a tool of humiliation and execution becomes, in Christ, the throne of glory and the tree of life.
Saint Paul captures this mystery in his First Letter to the Corinthians: “The message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God” (1:18). To human eyes, the Cross is folly, a sign of weakness, defeat, and shame. But through the eyes of faith, we recognise in it the very power of God, for on the Cross Jesus conquers death by death and transforms the world with the strength of His love.
The transformation of the Cross is not about suffering for its own sake. It is about love. Jesus did not embrace the Cross because He desired pain. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed with anguish that the cup of suffering might pass from Him. Yet He chose to obey the Father in a spirit of love, not compulsion. His surrender was the surrender of one who gives everything for the sake of the beloved. In this way the Cross is not simply an event in history but the eternal sign of divine love made visible.
This is why the feast has such important meaning for us. We do not lift high the Cross as though it were a monument to suffering. We lift it high as the sign of salvation and the pledge of eternal life. The very instrument of death has become, through Christ, the source of life and hope.
The Cross and the Eucharist are inseparably bound together. In every Divine Liturgy, we are drawn once more to the mystery of Calvary. The Eucharist is not only a memorial but a real participation in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Each time we gather around the altar, we proclaim the life that springs from the Cross and we receive in the Eucharist the fruits of that sacrifice. Our Maronite hymn expresses this truth when we chant:
“You have united, O Lord, your divinity with our humanity and our humanity with your divinity; your life with our mortality and our mortality with your life… for the life and salvation of our souls.”
The Cross is also personal. It is not only Christ’s Cross but ours. Jesus asks us to respond with our own “yes” to the crosses we carry. When accepted in love, suffering no longer remains an empty weight. It becomes a means of communion with Christ and an opening to grace.
The Christian life does not deny the reality of pain. It faces it with faith and discovers within it the possibility of resurrection. Jesus shows us that new life can come forth from suffering.
God created us for love and for communion with Him. This is why the Cross, far from being the end of the story, is the path to eternal life.
For our Maronite Church, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross holds a particular place in our traditions. A cherished custom is the lighting of fires on the hills of Lebanon, recalling the story of Saint Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, who discovered the true Cross in Jerusalem. To announce this discovery, fires were lit on the mountaintops, passing the message from one village to the next. To this day, our people continue to celebrate this feast by lighting bonfires on the eve of the feast.
The Season of the Holy Cross also comes as the final season of the liturgical year, leading us to conclude our yearly journey of faith at the foot of the Cross. By ending the year in this way, the Church reminds us that everything in the Christian life ultimately finds its fulfilment in the mystery of the Cross. Every season, every feast, every fast, and every prayer reaches its completion in this act of redemption.
As we celebrate this feast, let us look upon the Cross with new eyes. Let us see in it not defeat but triumph, not despair but hope, not death but life. May we proclaim with faith: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
