The Triumph of the Cross

Today we observe The Triumph of the Cross. This feast falls on 14 September each year. It is certainly apt that this year it falls on Friday. We observe Fridays as days of abstinence, days of penance, a little Good Friday preceding Sunday. Sunday, of course, is Dies Domini, Day of the Lord, on which we celebrate, rejoice, and jubilate in the resurrection of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. All of this makes each Sunday a little Easter. So, while Fridays are days of austerity, Sundays are always feast days, even during Lent!

Goya, Christo Crucificado

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn 4,10). It is also fitting to point out, after a couple of long meditations on Job, that the Cross is the answer to Job's question about suffering. May we be like St. Paul, who wrote to the Church at Corinth: "know nothing among . . . except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2,2).

Eternal Son of the Father, you came to cast fire on the earth and you longed to see its flame kindled in the hearts of all people,
-grant that through holiness of life we may come to share in the undying light of your glory