Right on time at 8 AM this morning, the fireworks from the Birkirkara church started waking up the entire neighborhood. The Birkirkara basilica is dedicated to Saint Helen, and today, 3d of May they commemorate the finding of the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. Even though liturgically today the church celebrates the feast of the apostles St Philip and St James, however it’s always been a tradition that the day the Cross of Jesus was discovered is commemorated today also. September 14th is also celebrated liturgically as the feast of the Triumph or Exaltation of the Cross. Being the mother of Emperor Constantine, who ended the persecutions in 313AD, Helena was determined to find the abandoned cross on which Jesus was crucified. The excavations which she led actually found three crosses buried in Jerusalem close to Mount Calvary. To verify which was the actual cross of Christ, they asked a sick person to touch each cross. Touching the first two crosses, nothing happened to her. When she touched the third one, the person was completely healed, and thereby they concluded which was Jesus' cross. The Cross of Christ dominates our lives in many ways. So many of us start meetings, classes, trips, and gatherings with the sign of the cross. Passing by a cemetery, you see hundreds of crosses lining up the entire area. If you’re in Arlington Cemetery in Washington DC, the crosses number in the thousands. We all have crosses to carry, but when we are given a cross, we are also given the strength to carry them through our lives. And if we feel it’s too heavy a cross to carry, Jesus is close to us to help us carry its weight.
No comments:
Post a Comment