September 14, 2025 - Pastor Message
September 14, 2025“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).
This weekend we celebrate the feast of the exaltation of the cross. On the surface, it seems strange that we would exalt the cross. While the cross has been somewhat made light of in recent decades by turning it into jewelry, home decorations, and even candy, the reality of the cross is that it is one of the most horrific forms of torture and death imaginable. Every part of a crucifixion was designed to maximize the victim’s physical and psychological suffering. So horrible was it, that, in the Roman Empire, it was reserved only for slaves and the worst of criminals, such as traitors to the state, and it was prohibited to be used against Roman citizens, which is why St. Paul, a Roman citizen, was beheaded and not crucified, unlike St. Peter, a non-citizen, who by tradition is believed to have been crucified upside down because he told his executioners he was unworthy to die a death like his Lord.
Both St. Peter and St. Paul, though they died in different ways, gave their lives in union with Christ, and St. Paul’s words to the Galatians above tell us why. They had come to believe that the cross of Christ was the means of our salvation, and they were willing to give their lives in witness to that belief so that others may believe it and be saved too. The cross represents all that is evil and wrong with this world, subject to the power of sin and death. By dying on the cross, Christ took on all that evil and sin, and by rising three days later, overcame it, opening the door to a new, risen life, free of the power of the cross. Now, because of that, all who believe in Christ can share in that same risen life by taking up our cross and following him, whatever our cross may be (Luke 9:23).
That is why we exalt the cross today - not the cross of torture and death, but the cross of Christ, through which he frees us from sin and death. He has turned the cross from a sign of defeat into a sign of victory. May we join St. Peter and St. Paul in celebrating that victory today and always by taking up our cross and following Christ.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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