“What does it mean for us today to celebrate” the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross? Pope Leo asked at the Angelus on Sunday, September 14.

To answer that question, the Holy Father turned to the day’s Scripture readings, beginning with the Gospel account of Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus. Nicodemus, the Pope said, “is in need of light, of guidance: he seeks God and asks the Master of Nazareth for help.”

Jesus in turn welcomes Nicodemus, “listens to him, and finally reveals to him that the Son of Man must be lifted up, ‘so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.’” Even if Nicodemus did not fully understand at the time, Pope Leo said, “he would certainly grasp it later,” at the Crucifixion. “He would understand that God, in order to redeem humanity, became man and died on the Cross.”

The Pope went on to explain the figure used by Jesus in His dialogue with Nicodemus, the “bronze serpent” that Moses had made and set upon a pole, at God’s command, to heal the Israelites who had been bitten by poisonous serpents.

Nothing can separate us from God

“God saved us by showing Himself to us, offering Himself as our companion, teacher, physician, and friend, even to the point of becoming for us the Bread broken in the Eucharist,” the Pope said. “And to accomplish this work, He made use of one of the cruellest instruments of death ever invented by man: The Cross.”

Pope Leo said, “This is why today we celebrate its ‘exaltation’: for the love with which God, by embracing the Cross for our salvation, transformed it from an instrument of death into a means of life, teaching us that nothing can separate us from Him, and that His love is greater than our sin.”

The Holy Father concluded his Angelus reflection by inviting the faithful to pray, “through the intercession of Mary… that His saving love may take root and grow within us too, and that we too may learn to give ourselves to one another, just as He gave Himself wholly to all.”

60th anniversary Synod of Bishops

After reciting the Angelus, the Pope recalled the anniversary of the Synod of Bishops, established by Pope St. Paul VI on 15 September 1965. 

“Tomorrow marks the sixtieth anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, a prophetic intuition of Saint Paul VI, so that bishops could more fully and effectively exercise communion with the successors of Peter",  he said.

Recalling the initiative, the Holy Father expressed his hope “that this anniversary may inspire a renewed commitment to unity, to synodality, and to the mission of the Church.”