September 14 is the day we celebrate every year the Feast of the Holy Cross commemorating the victory of Christ over sin, over the devil and over death itself. The feast has deep ecumenical significance as it is celebrated by the Eastern Churches, by the Catholic Church, in Lutheranism, Anglicanism and some Protestant Traditions.

The Cross is the symbol of our hope of eternal life, always pointing to the resurrection. It gives salvific meaning to all the sufferings of our life’s journey, the pain and sorrow that are inevitable in this ‘vale of tears’ but only if we have faith in him as our Lord and Saviour and are ready to die with him so that we can rise with him to fullness of life. The Cross always reminds us of God’s infinite and unconditional love, mercy and forgiveness in Christ and the call to every human being to repent and live the life of God’s children.

When I was very young I remember well a Good Friday sermon where the preacher described the Cross as the symbol of our will (vertical beam) being cut through by God’s will (horizontal beam), and wherein lies the painful sacrifice. Well, that explanation has not become, and will not become, obsolete despite the passing of time. It was real in the life of Jesus, it is real today, if we truly believe in the words of Jesus: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mathew 16: 24-25).

If the devil could have the courage to tempt the Eternal Son of God in the desert with the lure of the world’s wealth, power and pleasures, would he try any less with us? And like our first parents in Paradise millions of people so easily fall for the devil’s false promises, and the result? Ruin of our lives individually and collectively. It is no wonder that the devil is holding such a powerful sway over human hearts and minds and actions in the present time.

When the Lord spoke to his disciples about his impending death, Peter rebuked him saying that he should not even think of such a thing. And Jesus responded to him: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Mathew 16: 22-23). Therefore, it is important to ask ourselves all the time, on what have I set my mind – on things of God or things of man! The former leads to eternal life, the latter to eternal damnation.

There is no other weapon to defeat the devil than the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ which calls us to repentance and total surrender to God’s will in the manner of Christ – the self-emptying that defines the life of Christ.

In his conversion to Christ St. Paul understood the wisdom of the Cross as against the wisdom of the world, and so he could testify with conviction: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1: 18). The Cross is indeed ‘folly’ and a ‘stumbling block’ to those who are not ‘called’, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1Corinthians 1: 24-26). The question each one of us has to ask oneself is this: Is the Cross ‘foolishness’ or a ‘stumbling block’ to me in the way I live and organize my life, especially when the Gospel of Christ places a challenge before me?

So powerful are these words of St. Paul: “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not I plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

Our human ego wounded by sin is so prone to ‘boast’ – of our wealth, our power, our academic qualifications, our achievements, our family background, our superiority over others and the like. In the world we witness the scramble for power, prestige, popularity, positions, and we have also created philosophies that guarantee earthly power as a birth right. We forget the words of Christ:

“But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Mathew 19: 30).

Therefore, earthly power is no guarantee of sharing in the eternal glory of the Holy Trinity unless we repent and follow Christ our Saviour in the path of the Cross and Resurrection which is the only way to salvation. Christ does not want us to ‘perish’ but to be saved (cf. John 3: 16), therefore a daily examination of our conscience is necessary to ask ourselves whether we are on the path of salvation or of damnation. This is the holiness of life the Saints have taught us – to reflect whether every thought, word and action flows from the Holy Spirit or from another force is us (cf. 1 John 4:1).

There is no doubt St. Paul also was filled with the pride of his high learning and status as a ‘pharisee’, his knowledge of the Scriptures and Mosaic Law, his consciousness of being of the ‘chosen race’ and his hatred towards the nascent Church – all this until he met the Risen Lord who accorded him a full communion in the Paschal Mystery of hi Death and Resurrection after which there was no going back. So, he could exclaim: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21) or “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 1: 10-11).

In our reflection on the Cross, I would like to quote verbatim some thoughts from the book Here Comes Jesus by Marcelino Iragui, OCD [Charismatic Renewal Services, Mumbai, 1987], pp 29-32. He says:

There are two types of enemies: a) enemies you are called to forgive and love, such as those human beings who oppose and hurt you; b) enemies you are called to fight. Confusing one type with the other leads to disaster. You might join hands with the enemies you are called to fight, and spend a lifetime fighting those you are called to forgive. That would be the beginning of hell. Jesus is here to save you from hell; to give you victory over the enemies you are called to fight. Who are they?

1. Enemy number one is SATAN with an army of evil spirits or demons under his orders. Satan and his followers are God’s creatures now in revolt against their Maker, and bent on misguiding God’s children. Though already defeated and sentenced to eternal punishment, they are allowed to put men to the test. They come as thieves to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). In their furious war against God’s children they have secured the aid of two allies: the world and the flesh. The world, under the influence of Satan, has a perverted sense of values, and can pervert you (cf. 1 John 2: 15-17). The flesh is human nature “sold as a slave to sin” and dominated by evil passions and desires (cf. Romans 7: 14-25).

2. These three enemies combine their forces to attack and lead you into SIN, which is the most dreadful thing that can happen to you. Sin means rejection of God’s saving plan for you. It is sin that prepares and perpetuates hell. Jesus had to suffer such dreadful torments to overcome the power of sin and expiate for it. There is nothing you should not be ready to suffer to escape as mortal sin.

3. When you are not living a victorious life with Jesus, the enemies can bind you and lead you to ADDICTIONS to sex, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, novels… These things may not be bad in themselves, but when you get addicted to them you are like a prisoner tied up to a post. Satan, bent as ever on destroying the family of man, is making at present great inroads in the field of addictions. As a result the lives of countless young men and women are ruined in the most senseless way.
4. Other enemies that can crush you are your own NEGATIVE FEELINGS like fear, anger, guilt, dejection, when they dominate your life or some area of it. Your feelings can be manipulated by Satan; they can open the door to sin; they can create unbearable tensions making you ill.
5. Physical ILLNESS, weakness and finally DEATH are to be listed as enemies, the result of man’s rebellion against his Maker. In his great mercy and wisdom, however, God uses them for his saving plans. Hence they need not be feared and opposed in the same way as the other enemies.
6. Last, not the least of all, there is a whole array of SOCIAL EVILS, that seem to be growing more powerful with each passing year: injustice, exploitation, casteism, racism, superstition and degrading poverty. Satan is behind many of these evils, fostering greed and cruelty in the rich, anger, hate and despair in the poor. Unless he is detected and bound, there will be no progress in the social field. An expert deceiver, he succeeds often in making people believe that God is responsible for social evils and for any disgrace in life. That is why people are so quick in blaming God when things go wrong. In reality nothing but good comes from God.

Your enemies are many and powerful. Yet that is no cause for alarm. Since the day Jesus died on the cross and rose again, they are defeated enemies. You may have lost many a battle, but the war goes on. If you rally behind Jesus, yours is the final and total victory. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). But for Jesus, the picture of the modern world would be a bleak one.

May the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ be our only hope.