Reflection on the Holy Cross

September 14 marks the beginning of the Season of the Holy Cross in the Syriac Churches. September 14 was chosen as the date of the Feast of the Holy Cross because it marks the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (the tomb of Christ) in Jerusalem, where St. Helena, the Mother of Emperor Constantine, found the cross of Jesus.

The cross is a central focus of Syriac theology: it is both the foreshadowed hope of the prophets looking to the coming of the Messiah, as well as the hope and help of Christians who remember and invoke the saving plan of the same Messiah, Jesus Christ. Many of the hymns of our Syriac tradition call this to mind - how Old Testament figures prefigure the deliverance made real by the cross of Christ. This verse from the Vespers (Evening Prayer) of the Holy Cross is a good example:

Hallelujah! Upon Israelite doors Moses drew the living cross’s mystery while in Egypt’s land.

It stopped the razing watcher who was sent by God, who had killed the first-born of the Egyptians.

By it he [Moses] split the dread sea before the Hebrew camp and then drowned Pharaoh with all of his host.

The Evil One cannot attack the Church or her children, hallelujah! sealed by the great cross.

Just as the sign marked upon the door of the Israelites in Egypt saved them from the angel of death (Exodus 13:12-28), the cross that we use to sign our bodies protects and saves us. Just as Moses split the Red Sea (Exodus 14) to deliver the People from Pharaoh, God does the impossible for us and delivers us from harm by His cross.

May the Holy Cross be our rampart.