September 14, 2025
September 14, 2025
Homilies
Homilies

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Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Love Remains
ARCHIVED HOMILYโ It may seem strange to some people that we celebrate it, that we โexaltโ Christโs crossโan instrument of death.
But this is the great mystery of the cross: Christ transformed that instrument of death into a source of life. That is what we celebrate. We are a part of it. And it is a part of us.
We are people of the cross...
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Deacon Peter McCulloch
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
GOOD CATHOLIC (5:52) – Margaret Clitherow, the “Pearl of York,” was a devoted Catholic who prioritized her faith above all else. Despite her love for her family, she remained committed to her religious beliefs, even in the face of persecution.
Shining Armour

โLove your enemies,โ Jesus says, โand bless those who persecute you.โ So why today is he telling us to hate our family?
Itโs because Jesusโ language, Aramaic, didnโt have a word for prefer. The Jesuit author Brendan Byrne says that in Aramaic, if you preferred one thing over another, youโd say you โlovedโ one thing, but โhatedโ the other. But this doesnโt mean โhateโ as we mean it today. It means putting God first and loving other things less.

Exaltation of the Cross

Life is full of paradoxes, of things that seem self-contradictory or absurd but still remain true. Like in social media, where the more connected you are, the less connected you become. Or the truism that if you want to succeed, then expect to fail.
Today we celebrate the greatest paradox of all โ the Cross of Christ. Itโs the most brutal instrument of torture and death, and yet itโs also the tree of life. Itโs a symbol of utter human weakness and failure, but also the ultimate proof of Godโs power and love.
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Fr. Jude Langeh, CMF
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
NO ARCHIVED HOMILIES AVAILABLE: This Sunday the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross takes precedence over the 24th Sunday readings in Ordinary Time. Previous years in which this ocured were 2014, 2008, 2003, 1997, 1992, 1986, 1975.
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Exaltation of the Holy Cross


Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. fr Fabian Radcliffe shows how the cross stands for both death and life.
The Cross is central to Christian faith. You will never find a Catholic Church without a cross, occasionally a plain cross, but most often a crucifix with the figure of the crucified Christ hanging on it. So, what does the Cross mean for us? What does it stand for? What moment in history does it bring before us? It was a moment (alas, one of many) when the religious and secular powers โ in this case the Jewish and Roman โ combined to condemn and execute an innocent man. As far as the powers were concerned, it was routine. Here was another religious and political fanatic, who was a threat to the stability of society and must be dealt with. Moreover, they had to do their job quickly because the Passover was imminent. They had no time to consider the case more carefully, even if they had wanted to do so.

Image: โStone Town Slave Trade 5โ by Son of Groucho (CC BY 2.0)

Twenty-Third Sunday of the Year. Fr Bede Mullens considers the difficulties raised by the Letter to Philemon..
History does not record Philemonโs final decision. If he freed Onesimus, it was all for the best. If he insisted on keeping Onesimus in chains, he was only calling down judgment on himself, by making Onesimus even more clearly the image of Paul in prison, the image of Christ crucified. How often we fail to learn except from the scars we inflict, and the Spirit of Wisdom blows unpredictably to straighten out the paths of those on earth.
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Fr. Austin Fleming
Exaltation of the Holy Cross

We Look to the Cross

2014 HOMILY โ As the Israelites were drawn to gaze on the bronze image
of a serpent that was death for them
โ and found life in doing so – so are we are drawn to that image of death that brings Godโs healing promise of life forever.
โJust as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that all who believe in him may have eternal life.โ
The Israelites gazed upon the image of the serpent that was their death. We gaze upon the death our sins have caused, upon the One whose shoulders bear the burden of our guilt, that we might be forgiven, healed and saved.
Ultimately, the Cross is an image of victory, not defeat. But how can we celebrate Christโs victory if we do not know what is our share in it?
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Fr. Jude Siciliano, O.P.
Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Why Exalt the Cross?
Why are we celebrating the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in mid-September? Lent doesn’t begin until Wednesday, February 18, 2026. Before we turn to todayโs scripture readings, letโs reflect on the feast.
Some history: The feast dates back to the fourth century. Tradition holds that St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, discovered the True Cross in Jerusalem around the year 326, during her pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This is a very ancient feast, sometimes called the Triumph of the Cross. But unlike Good Friday, which focuses on Christโs suffering, this feast highlights the victory of the Cross. Through the Cross came salvation and new life for us. Once a symbol of humiliation and execution, it is now a sign of Godโs love, triumph, and glory.
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Fr. Charles E. Irvin
Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Handed Over In Love
This week’s homily is from Fr. Renรฉ J. Butler, M.S.

What do Judas, and the leaders of the Sanhedrin, and Pontius Pilate, all have in common with God the Father?
You might find the question confusing, even bizarre, if not downright blasphemous, but the idea came to me when reading a commentary of St. Augustine on the First Letter of John, which I also referred to in last weekโs homily…
The common thread is the verb โhand over.โ In more classical translations we read that Judas โbetrayedโ Jesus, the Sanhedrin โdeliveredโ Jesus to Pilate, Pilate โdeliveredโ Jesus to be crucified, and God โdelivered him up.โ The use of the identical verb easily goes unnoticed.
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Fr. George Smiga
Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Click on infographic to enlarge it
Sighing for Cavalry

2008 HOMILY – Today we celebrate the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross. There are two distinct ways in which we can view this triumph or this victory. One way refers to what Christ has done; the other refers to what we are called to do.
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Exaltation of the Holy Cross


God Loves Us to Death

The cross is the symbol of the Christian. It is our sign of our personal relationship with our Savior. He died not just for people in general but for me and for you. He calls us to join him on his cross not just as a people but as individuals. The ideal that he realized is the goal of our lives, to make real the only true love there is: sacrificial love.
Some people treat the cross as a trinket. For them the cross is merely a piece of jewelry. Other people treat the cross in a superstitious manner. They give a cross powers that belong to God. These people have seen too many cheap horror movies and act as though a cross can defeat evil spirits. It is not the object that conquers evil, it is the power of Christ whose presence the object reminds us that conquers evil.
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Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The Wisdom and Power of the Cross

The readings for Wednesdayโs Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross provide rich teachings. Letโs look at five themes, each in turn.
I. The Pattern of the Cross
II. The Palliative Cross
III. The Paradox of the Cross
IV. The Power of the Cross
V. The Passion of the Cross
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Fr. Michael Chua
Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Jesus foresaw that his greatest work lay ahead as he ascended Calvary to embrace his own powerlessness and self-emptying. Paradoxically, it was when he most seemed powerless, that he was most powerful. The cross would prove victorious when meeting our ancient enemies on the battlefield โ sin, death and evil would be defeated by the very sacrifice of Christ himself. Jesus’ radical embracing of his Passion โ and our radical embracing of our own โ marks the supreme moment of a person, whose life seems otherwise spinning out of control or into chaos, as God assumed control of oneโs life and destiny through our willing immersion into His hope-filled and redemptive designs.

Our Lord doesnโt want a large number of disciples who are only half-way committed to Him. Heโs looking for followers who are โall-in,โ dedicated to Him through prayer and discipleship. Quality matters more than quantity. Such is the wisdom and the logic of the cross.
St. Teresa of Avila once complained about the hardships that Christians face, and she heard the Lord say, โTeresa, whom the Lord loves, He chastises. This is how I treat all my friends.โ Ever the witty thinker, she responded, โNo wonder you have so few friends!โ So, if you are experiencing suffering, hardship and persecution for Christ, or have few friends because of the Christian values you hold, do not despair. Remember: we are counted among the Lordโs friends. So, learn to take up your cross and learn its logic, and you will be assured of a wisdom and a reward that is beyond this world.


When Protestants ask Catholics if they have been saved, the question would most likely be met with a stunned look on the part of the Catholic or an admission that he has never thought about this before. This comes as good news to the Protestant as he can now confidently proselytise the Catholic and ensure that the latter is saved by becoming a Bible believing, faith professing Protestant Christian. For many Protestants, one becomes a Christian by merely making a confession of faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Baptism comes later but isnโt necessary for our salvation. I guess the reason why most Catholics are not prepared with an answer to that question is that salvation or rather, heaven, is something they often take for granted. Why worry about this moot issue when we can all get to heaven?
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Veneration of the Cross
Our veneration of the cross reminds us of the most important moment in the history of the world: Jesusโ death bringing us salvation. Whatever about the authenticity of accounts of discerning the true cross by means of healings by touching it, we do have contemporary accounts from exorcists on the power of the cross. As part of the exorcism ritual, an exorcist holds up a cross over the afflicted person and says, โBehold the cross of the Lordโ and commands the demons to leave. That is a key moment and those afflicted report afterwards that it was at that moment the demons began to go. There is a power in the cross of Jesus that I think we may not understand but these accounts help us to grasp the power of Jesusโ cross. All the graces that we receive, everything, come to us through Jesusโ death on the cross. That is what the blood and water flowing from Jesusโ side symbolize, though they especially represent baptism and the Eucharist. Everything comes to us from Jesusโ cross. That is why in the Gospel today, we heard John make a little fuss about seeing the blood and water flow from Jesusโ side (John 19:35). He does not want us to be in any doubt that all the graces we receive really come from Jesus on the cross.
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