The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Jesus said to Nicodemus: "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."
We exalt Christ's cross whenever we take it up, filled with the certainty that the ultimate meaning and fulfillment which we crave in life comes to us through this unending event. "With the cross we are freed from the restraint of the enemy and we clutch on to the strength of salvation." (Saint Theodoras, the Estudite). For salvation means escape from our own inability. At the same time, "we cannot produce or give any other fruit," writes Saint Catherine of Siena, "but the fruit we have taken from the tree of life." No wonder that "the sign of the cross makes kings of all those reborn in Christ" (Saint Leo the Great).
The two verses that are generally regarded as the most successful in summing up the Gospel message (John 3:16-17): "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."
caduceus symbol: a serpent on a pole/the wand of Mercury/the symbol of medicine.
light by which we can be judged.
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