[Homily. Assumption Chapel. 14 September 2021]
On this happy day when we come together in gratitude to mark my last day in office and to greet with great joy Fr. Karel San Juan, who takes over as President of the ADDU tomorrow, we do so in celebration of the Exaltation of the Cross – the Triumph of the Cross.
Traditionally, this is the day we commemorate the finding of the Cross some 1,700 years ago by St. Helen, the mother of the first of the Christian Roman emperors, Constantine. Whether they actually succeeded in finding the true wood of the Cross, we really do not know. But today we commemorate the Cross no longer as a cruel instrument of torture but as a sign, a promise, of our salvation.
We recall what we intone on Good Friday: “Behold, behold the wood of the Cross on which is hung our salvation. O come let us adore…” We do not just adore the wood of a cross, but the Lord hanging from the Cross, peering into our hearts with love.
From our first reading, we are reminded how the Israelites afflicted by poisonous seraph snakes looked at the image of the bronze snake mounted vertically by Moses on a pole, which resembled the Cross. Looking at this image, [of the Cross], the suffering Israelites were saved.
Today, gazing at the image of our Lord lifted up on the Cross, who lifts us up to himself, in order to lift us up forgiven and saved to the Father, we ask you, Father, to fill us with the joy of our shared salvation in the Lord resurrected from his giving of himself “for us” on the Cross, glorified from his shedding of his blood “for us” on the Cross. “For just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14).
Grateful for the love that we experience from the Cross, especially in our moments of silent prayer and adoration before the Lord hanging from the Cross in this chapel, help us to more deeply understand, O Lord, what we have done for you in our lives, what we are doing for you, and what we ought to do for you.
Let that also be a prayer for our university community on this day of University transition. Let us appreciate what we have done for you in our mission in grace of seeking, finding and sharing truth, what we are now doing for you in this challenging academic year, and especially what we now ought to do for you, now that we know the depth of your love.
Some of you know my sister, Lelen. She used to attend Mass here with us from the balcony as she battled the cancer in her breast. Appreciating the significance of this celebration of the Exaltation of the Cross in my life just before I move on to Malaybalay, she wrote me, “Your first step in your new journey is with the Cross … so blessed are you.” It is true also for Father Karel: your first step in your new journey is with the Cross, the pain of the illness of your brother, Omar, yet the hope that in the Cross nothing is wasted, no pain is unnoticed, no wound is unhealed, no sickness is unto death. All in the Cross leads to truth, healing, blessedness and life. “So blessed are you.”
Blessed are you because from the Cross, the Father will guide your leadership of this university, grant you the wisdom of his Spirit, disturb you should go astray, find you when you are lost, and lead you on the right path through the joy and light of his consolation.
Being blessed in the Cross is our privilege to share with our students, with our teachers and administrators, with our stakeholders, with our families, with one another, and with our loved ones. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn. 3:16-17).
Blessed are those who are loved from the Cross and who love from the Cross. Blessed are those whose hearts, signed in the Cross, sing of the love of the King on the Cross, Love in the unending compassion of his Father.
Fr. Joel E. Tabora, S.J. Blog 