Thanks be to God that His wisdom often turns dysfunctional human plans upside down and inside out. We see this in the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The instrument of torture becomes the throne of glory.
He Who was nailed to the Cross like a criminal is in fact the King of kings before Whom one day every knee shall bow. Every knee: the final clarification of all those interesting inter-faith discussions.
The splendour of the Holy Cross guarantees that in our war against the forces of darkness we are already well and truly on the winning side. The principal and decisive battle has already been fought and won by the Son of God. What now remains are the continuing skirmishes by which the Enemy tries to undermine our confidence in Christ’s victory.
How do we exalt the Holy Cross? By showing forth in our daily lives the Gospel truth that suffering can be salvific. We also exalt Christ the Lord by reaching out in charity to our neighbours, especially to those who do not yet share our faith.
How are people going to know about Christ unless we tell them? How will they come to believe in Him unless we prepare the ground for them to receive the Holy Spirit’s supernatural gift of faith?
We cannot hope to prepare the ground unless we ourselves are credible witnesses. We bear witness to Christ (among many other ways) by being of genuine service to our fellow citizens, serving them after the pattern of His own compassion and generosity.
We do this not for cold humanistic or sociological reasons, but with a supernatural motive. We serve our neighbours in order to share with them something of what we ourselves have received; the countless blessings of that infinite charity which the Sacred Heart of Jesus unremittingly intends for the whole of mankind.