Triumph of the Cross

1st Reading: Num 21:4b–9
2nd Reading: Phil 2:6–11
Gospel: Jn 3:13–17

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one has ever gone up to heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man.
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead, through him the world is to be saved.”

Commentary
The original name of this feast was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, by which name it is still known in the Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. Since 1970, it has been called the Triumph of the Cross. The feast commemorates the finding of the True Cross in 325 by St. Helena, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, during a pilgrimage she made to Jerusalem. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was then built and dedicated at the site of the discovery, by order of Helena and Constantine, with a portion of the cross placed inside it.
In 614, that portion of the cross was carried away from the church by the Persians, and remained missing until it was recaptured by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in 628. The cross was returned to the church the following year, after initially having been taken to Constantinople by Heraclius. The date used for the feast marks the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 335. In this festival, the cross itself was brought outside the church, so that the clergy and faithful could pray before the True Cross, and all could come forward to venerate it.

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