Exaltation of the Holy Cross

September 14, 2008

Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

St. Thomas More Society

celebrated at

St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church , 1013 Wood Street

Scranton, PA

John 3:13-17

            In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen

            Two days ago, September 12^th, was the 325^th anniversary of John Sobieski, the Polish King, breaking the Ottoman siege of Vienna, in 1683.  Thus, September 11^th marked the highpoint of the Muslim advance into Western Europe and was chosen by the terrorists in commemoration of their past military successes.  Because Osama bin Laden and his ilk chose to attack our nation on September 11^th, however, this tragic anniversary always will be followed by a feast of the Church that highlights the contrast between Catholicism and Islamic terrorism.  The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrated every year on September 14^th, falls this year on a Sunday—today.  Thus, we are offered an excellent opportunity seven years after 9/11 to explain the theology that spawned the war we now are engaged in, as well as the Catholic answer to these falsehoods.  So today I will articulate these polar opposite conceptions of God so you can explain to all who will hear you precisely why our Catholic faith is far superior to the religion of those who slaughtered our countrymen.

            We are reminded first by the Exaltation of the Holy Cross that God loves us and He loves the world He has created.  Our Gospel reads, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”  Jesus’ presence among us is an expression of God’s deep, abiding love for His children, and we are called to recognize it as such.  St. John the Evangelist tells us, “For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”  The point of Jesus’ entry into the history of mankind is our salvation, not our condemnation.

            In contrast to this Good News, we can note that the Islamic terrorists who attacked us do not speak of love at all.  Listen to their communiqués, and you will hear only the language of condemnation and judgment.  According to them, God desires to condemn the world He has created, and the terrorists simply are participating in this judgment He has pronounced.  According to this line of reasoning, those who were cut down on 9/11 and in every terrorist attack before or since had it coming to them.  The terrorists consider our failure to accept this judgment as justification enough for our condemnation and destruction.  Where we see a God who is loving and merciful, they see a God who is angry and vengeful.

            The reason we believe God to be loving and merciful has to do with what He has done for us.  What we believe God does in interacting with His human creation is the second element of contrast with Islamic terrorism.  St. Paul teaches us that “being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”  God demonstrates His love for us by enduring violence for us.  Indeed, He loves us so much that He endures the violence we ourselves inflict upon Him.  Just as He forgave Peter who denied Him three times, so by the blood of the cross does Jesus forgive us who deny Him by the sins we commit.  Jesus’ love for us, the love we are called to emulate, is a sacrificial love, one that endures pain that others might live.

            Contrast this, then, with the ideology of Islamic extremists.  Theirs is not a God who endures trial, mockery, torture and death on their behalf, no God who endures violence for them.  They believe, rather, in a god who inflicts violence on earth and asks his followers to participate in this assault on the so-called infidels.  Whereas love and mercy issue in the endurance of pain and suffering, judgment and condemnation issue in the infliction by God of pain, suffering and death.

            The third difference between our Catholic faith in the blood of the Holy Cross and Islamic extremism has to do with the effect of these divergent ways of approaching mankind.  Jesus says, “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.”  People are attracted to mercy.  Even if we are not always merciful ourselves, we desire mercy for us.  The love of God demonstrated in Christ’s sacrifice upon the Altar of the Cross is very attractive.  We know this is true because of the millions upon millions of conversions to Catholic Christianity, conversions that never are coerced and always are voluntary.

            The violence of the Islamic terrorists has the opposite effect.  Far from drawing men to its perverse doctrines, radical Islam repels and repulses the world.  Their judgment and violence are frightening, and their desire to subjugate the world through coercion provokes resistance in the human heart that was created to exercise free will.  In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the local population has cooperated with the United States military to combat such extremism—shining examples of how even most Muslims reject Islamic terrorism because of its threats to life and liberty.

            The Holy Cross, therefore, is a symbol of love, the sign that indicates the lengths to which God is willing to go in order to reclaim His sheep that have gone astray.  The magnitude of this love means the sheep return to the fold on their own, people from every race and nation desiring the mercy that flows from Christ’s sacrifice of Himself.

            Unfortunately for us Catholics, too many people do not know what the Holy Cross of Christ truly represents.  For too many people, the cross is a symbol of God’s anger, a harbinger of the violence that God will visit upon the world at the end of time, a sign from which the misinformed flee because they think it means death and slavery rather than life and true freedom.  Those who think this way are not all Islamic extremists!  As evidenced by the secular media’s hostility to Christianity, too many of the folks who flee from the Holy Cross are our own countrymen.

            It is imperative, therefore, that we present our faith in such a way that we do not encourage in our brothers the same reaction that Islamic extremism inspires.  We must emphasize that the Holy Cross is salvation, not condemnation; that it is love, not violence; that it is mercy and never coercion.  If we are to convert the world, the Cross must be attractive, not repellant.

            Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that there are not one hundred people in America who reject what Catholics believe, but there are countless Americans who reject what they think the Catholic Church teaches.  Therefore, the most effective weapon we can wield in the fight against Islamic extremism is the knowledge of our Catholic faith.  To the degree that our confused countrymen comprehend the beauty of the Holy Cross, they will be better able to recognize that our faith is no threat to human freedom, and they will end their hostility towards Catholic Truth.  Therefore, as important as it is to know why the terrorists attacked us, it is even more important to believe in how God loved us, in the blood of the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ.  When we Catholics are able to share the beauty of the Faith with our neighbors we will be that much closer to the unity St. Paul described in today’s Epistle, the day when “at the name of Jesus knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”