To celebrate this feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is to celebrate the very heart our faith. After all, it is in the "kenosis" (self emptying) of Jesus that we are saved through the forgiveness of our sins -- and that simultaneously leads both to his and our glorification. The second reading from St. Paul's letter to the Philippians is so packed with meaning and consolation that it lends itself perfectly to "lectio divina" : read through it slowly and carefully, pondering deeply in your heart these words so aptly describing the marvelous mystery of our redemption. That may be enough for your prayer today!

But I would also like to offer you a chance to reflect on the passage from the Book of Numbers used later in the Gospel of John (today's Gospel) to fathom the mystery of the cross -- what some medieval writers referred to as the "alchemy" of the Cross -- the image of the recovery from snakebite by gazing at a bronze snake mounted on a pole. God uses the very instrument of death, the poison, the venom, of sin as the remedy for it. God's way is, as one writer put it, "mercy within mercy within mercy!" The utterly free and gratuitous forgiveness of our sins! The ultimate truth, which is God's unique embrace of tender and passionate love ("God so loved the world..."), is that the essential effect of sin (the crucifixion of humanity) is, identically, the healing. That's why we put up and gaze at the Cross, contemplating this incredible act of love. What sin ultimately is, IS seen in the Crucified One; what sin ultimately IS, is now forgiven. It cannot be otherwise, given both the infinite mercy and the power of God: it suffices for God to make our (often) hidden, denied, elusive evil explicit (in the crucifixion of Jesus) for it to be no more! No wonder the great Christian philosopher, Simone Weil, insisted that we are saved by seeing! "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

So, I am inviting us all to keep this celebration of the Cross by entering more deeply into the vision of the Crucified in which evil becomes sin and sin becomes forgiveness. That is our true identity. We are forgiven sinners! And that not only welcomes and frees us, it also empowers and sends us to be instruments of forgiveness in a world that is being torn apart because of the absence of forgiveness. This new power, the power Jesus shares with us, the power of forgiveness, which runs counter to our desire to retaliate, is the greatest healing power possible for us to the extent that we, too, have been harmed by violence and sin. The greater the poison, the stronger the remedy. For us sinners, the greatest joy we can experience is in the giving and receiving of forgiveness. Let us end our reflection by seeing the Tortured Man on the Tree of Life looking at us with compassion and saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."