Fr. Bob’s Homily – 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today is the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, but I’d like to turn our attention to a deeper celebration today: the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross.

At first, the phrase “triumph of the cross” might sound like a contradiction. After all, what could be triumphant about an instrument of torture and execution? The cross, from a human standpoint, symbolizes defeat, suffering and humiliation. We might look at it and ask, “Why? Why did the Lord of Glory die like this?”

If Jesus had been only human, perhaps we could understand it. He would have had no choice. The odds were against Him. He faced betrayal, political power plays and public scorn. But He wasn’t just a man. He was God. He chose this path.

Jesus did not have to become one of us. He didn’t have to experience fatigue, hunger, thirst, or rejection. He didn’t have to endure the ridicule of His own creation or suffer a criminal’s death, pleading in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Remember when Peter raised his sword to defend Him? Jesus said, “Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once command more than 12 legions of angels to minister to Me?” He again reminds us: “I am the Good Shepherd. No one takes My life from Me. I lay it down of My own accord.”

So why did He lay it down?

St. John gives us the answer: “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.” Likewise, St. Paul marvels, saying, “He loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Jesus didn’t go to the cross because He had to. He went because He loves us. If you were the only person in the world, He still would have gone through it – just for you.

We might still wonder: Was there no other way? Couldn’t God have saved the world by some other means? Did He have to endure such agony and shame? Could He not have come in divine majesty, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

These are mysteries we may never fully understand. But we do know what love can drive a person to do. We’ve seen how a mother will sacrifice everything for her child, how people will risk their lives for those they love. Love compels us to give everything.

Yet we rarely imagine God loving us that way. Too often, we see Him as distant, stern, even indifferent. But that’s not who He is. If that’s how we see God, then we don’t yet know Him. We do not know the truth.

The truth is this: God chose to live our experience. He chose to laugh and weep, to feel joy and pain, to walk among sinners though He was sinless. He chose to enter fully into our broken world, because of love.

To God, love is stronger than death. And Jesus didn’t simply die – He died for us. If He loves us that much, then we must be more precious than we know.

The least we can do in return is not merely exist, but live for Him.

And that, my friends, is the true triumph of the Cross.