Holy Cross, Holyrood

Exaltation of the Cross 14 September  

It is the Feast of Holy Cross, Holyrood. If a personal note, I was baptized at Holycross, the dedication of my primary school was Holycross, and my secondary school was Holyrood.
To begin Mass, we think of the summer time and winter time and the changing of the clock. The monastic season is more marked by the date of feast of the Holy Cross, change in monastic exercises.

The Cross too is down to earth, rooted.

Exaltation of the Cross is also Lowliness of the Cross, of heaven and of earth, as we are reminded each day, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

More formally stated:-

What are these Christians about, exalting an instrument of torture?

First, we rejoice that something so terrible should have been transformed into a means of redemption for the whole human race.

Second, we remind ourselves of the fact that Christianity is not an abstract and spiritual religion. It springs from God’s direct intervention in the affairs of the world, a real historical event involving real people and, in the end, a real execution on a real cross.

At the Night Office we had a Reading appropriate for the season, and of the days looking to the canosation of John Henry Newman.

From a sermon by John Henry Newman (Parochial and Plain Sermons, volume 6, pages 89-91)   

The great and awful doctrine of the cross of Christ, which we now commemorate, may fitly be called, in the language of figure, the heart of religion. The heart may be considered as the seat of life; it is the principle of motion, heat, and activity; from it the blood goes to and fro to the extreme parts of the body. It sustains the man in his powers and faculties; it enables the brain to think; and when it is touched, man dies. And in like manner the sacred doctrine of Christ's atoning sacrifice is the vital principle on which the Christian lives, and without which Christianity is not. Without it no other doctrine is held profitably; to believe in Christ's divinity, or in his manhood, or in the holy Trinity, or in a judgment to come, or in the resurrection of the dead, is an untrue belief, not Christian faith, unless we receive also the doctrine of Christ's sacrifice. On the other hand, to receive it presupposes the reception of other high truths of the gospel besides; and it prepares the way to belief in the sacred Eucharistic feast, in which he who was once crucified is ever given to our souls and bodies, verily and indeed, in his body and in his blood.

But again, the heart is hidden from view; it is carefully and securely guarded; not like the eye set in the forehead, commanding all, and seen of all: and so in like manner the sacred doctrine of the atoning sacrifice is not one to be talked of, but to be lived upon; not to be put forth irreverently, but to be adored secretly; not to be used as a necessary instrument in the conversion of the ungodly, or for the satisfaction of reasoners of this world, but to be unfolded to the docile and obedient; to young children, whom the world has not corrupted; to the sorrowful, who need comfort; to the sincere and earnest, who need a rule of life; to the innocent, who need warning; and to the established, who have earned the knowledge of it.

The Psalmist says, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy; and our Lord says, They that mourn shall be comforted. Let no one go away with the impression that the gospel makes us take a gloomy view of the world and of life. It hinders us indeed from taking a superficial view, and finding a vain transitory joy in what we see; but it forbids our immediate enjoyment, only to grant enjoyment in truth and fullness afterwards. It only forbids us to begin with enjoyment. It only says, If you begin with pleasure, you will end with pain. It bids us begin with the cross of Christ, and in that cross we shall at first find sorrow, but in a while peace and comfort will rise out of that sorrow. That cross will lead us to mourning, repentance, humiliation, prayer, fasting; we shall sorrow for our sins, we shall sorrow with Christ's sufferings; but all this sorrow will only issue, nay, will be undergone in a happiness far greater than the enjoyment which the world gives. Our Saviour said to his disciples, You now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you.

A Word in Season, Monastic Lectionary, Augustine Press 1991