His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Diocese of Belleville
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
September 13, 2025, 5:00 PM Mass
Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, Waterloo
“The Holy Cross: The World’s Greatest Love Story”
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
Robert Francis Prevost, His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago 70 years ago tomorrow, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Let us pray for the Roman Pontiff this evening on the anniversary of his birth and for the fruitfulness of his ministry at the dawn of his young Pontificate.
We honor the Holy Cross this evening. St. Helena (246-330), the Mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I, found the relics of the Cross, which, according to tradition, were first publicly venerated outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on September 14th, 326 Anno Domini.
Many people, especially those who are not Christians, wonder why the Catholic Church honors a piece of wood on which Jesus was crucified. They argue that there is no way of knowing with certainty that these wood fragments are from the “True Cross.” They ask, “Why would you want to honor a reminder of the Roman Empire’s punishment of excruciatingly painful, slow death by crucifixion?”
For people of faith, the image of Jesus nailed to His Cross is the reminder of His overwhelming love for all people everywhere. As Deacon Helfrick just proclaimed from the Gospel of John, “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. (3:16)”
Catholics do not venerate the Cross primarily as a reminder of Jesus’ agonizing suffering. The cross is primarily a reminder of His unconditional love. As Jesus said at the Last Supper, “No one has any greater love than to lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13),” which is what He did when he gave His life on the Cross so that we might live.
St. Paul, in his letter to the Christians living in Phillippi, teaches us the profound meaning of the Cross this evening, “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”
St. Paul continues, “Because of this, God greatly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians, 2: 6-11)”
With these words, gives us his theology of the Cross, teaching us that it is precisely because Jesus, not wishing to grasp at His dignity of equality with God, was willing to humble Himself even to death on a cross. This is why God exalted Him making His Name greater than every Mame moving people all over the world to proclaim that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” St. Paul teaches that God is most fully revealed in the crucified Jesus. The one who humbled Himself completely shows us how God acts and how we should act.
Every year, on Good Friday, we venerate the Cross with a kiss. This evening, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we are reminded that we must do more than kiss the Cross. We must embrace it as a way of life. Jesus did not say, “I’m taking up the Cross to save you the trouble of carrying your own cross.” He said, “If you wish to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your Cross and follow me.”
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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ: What does it mean for you and for me to carry our crosses? It surly means enduring daily sufferings such as family problems, serious health concerns, struggles with our faith, and financial worries, confident that we do not endure these difficulties alone. While these trials are a part of the human condition, the Holy Spirit accompanies us as we make our way through them.
In recent years, many Christians have become aware of a deeper experience of the Cross that come from the world beyond our daily lives. Many of you are surely aware of the Cross of existential suffering that we experience as members of the larger community, the country, and the world. There is the Cross of anxiety about the future of our planet due to climate change and environmental pollution endangering our earth as a suitable home for humanity. There is the Cross of the growing threat to world peace caused by the tensions between China and the United States; the Cross of Russia’s war on Ukraine; and the Cross of Israel’s war with Hamas. There is the Cross of escalating violence caused by the loss of respect for the dignity and value of every human life; the bloody Cross of mass shootings taking the lives of our children so frequently that we almost do not notice them; the Cross of the regular heinous acts of political violence including Wednesday’s senseless murder of a thirty-one year old outspoken, conservative political activist in the presence of his wife and children (Have some Americans become like Cain who slew his brother, Abel simply because he disagreed with him?); the Cross of the cruel destruction of developing human life in the mother’s womb; the Cross of deaths of the infirmed by assisted suicide, and the Cross of the catastrophic violence of that terrible day, September 11, 2001, which we commemorated on Thursday, a hellish event in which thousands perished and which we know could happen again. And there is the Cross of the frightening social, political, racial, cultural, and economic polarization leading to so much anger and rage in our country, scaring the sensitive psyches of our children.
Fear and anxiousness about these dreaded realities, which we cannot easily resolve, make them crosses that are so burdensome that we may feel helpless in our efforts to carry them. As one person asked me last week, “Bishop, is our world spinning out of control? Has evil gained a foothold in our country? Are we living in an age when hatred and violence will triumph over love and reconciliation? Is democracy itself endangered?” At times, the weight of these crosses can be overwhelming.
But we cross bearers must not despair. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us that the moral arc of the universe bends toward goodness, truth, justice, and peace. But it does not bend swiftly. We must never give up hope in God’s saving presence and action in our world. We must remind ourselves that we are only Simon of Cyrene striving to assist Christ, the true cross bearer. But we MUST each do our part. We must embrace the joy and goodness all around us and add to it by the way we live. “Lift High the Cross, the Love of Christ proclaim, until all the world adores his holy name!”
After you receive the Body and Blood of Christ this evening, I will bless you with the sign of the Cross. This blessing is a call to rededicate yourselves as cross bearers. The Cross of Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the world’s greatest love story. And we are all a part of that romance.
“We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, for by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!”
Praised be Jesus Christ. Both now and forever. Amen.