This year the Feast of the Cross falls on a Sunday. Rather than offer here a reflection for the feast, I will leave it to no less than St Paul and Jesus Himself. Here are the first reading and most of the Gospel from today’s Mass, Philippians 2:6-11 and John 3:13-17. The sentence in bold is John 3:16 – a verse which many say is the greatest in the whole Bible. If you want to memorise just one verse – it should be this one.

His state was divine,
yet he did not cling to his equality with God
but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are, he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death, death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name which is above all other names
so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

The Son of Man must be lifted up
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.

Fr Matthew