Homily: Crossing

 

Year C / Ordinary Time / Week 24  / Sunday - Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Readings: Numbers 21.4b-9 / Responsorial Psalm:  78 (R/v 7b) / Philippians 2.6-11 / John 3.13-17

Crossing bridges.

That’s what my friend Joshua loves to do whenever he visits a new city. He has walked across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Harbour Bridge in Sydney, the Ponte Sant’Angelo across the Tiber River, and of course, the Helix Bridge here in Singapore. Why does he do this? Partly for the view. From a bridge, you see the city differently—its skyline, its waterways, its landmarks. But more than that, Joshua says crossing a bridge is about connection. A bridge makes it possible to go from one side to the other, to unite what was once divided.

That image helps us understand what we celebrate today on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. For the Cross of Jesus is the greatest bridge in history. It bridges heaven and earth, connects God and humankind, spans the chasm between sin and grace, between death and eternal life. The Cross makes it possible for us to cross into God’s love.

Our readings point us to this truth. In the Gospel of John, we hear the words many of us can recite by heart: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” This is the heart of our faith. God does not stand far off. God loves, God comes close, God bridges the gap.

St. Paul, in the letter to the Philippians, reminds us how this was done: Jesus, though divine, humbled himself, became human like us, and accepted even death on a cross. That is why we can boldly pray during the Stations of the Cross: “By your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”

But the Cross is not only an event in history. It is not only a doctrine we learn in catechism. It is also a lived reality that touches us daily. We encounter the saving love of the Cross whenever we are forgiven. We experience it when someone shows mercy and lifts us up. We live it when we are given a second chance to live more fully, more freely, more joyfully. God’s saving love continues to reach us now, bridging the gap between what we are and what God calls us to be.

Think about the contradictions in our lives. We want to live with faith, yet we struggle with doubt. We long to be kind, yet selfishness creeps in. We hope to be free for God, yet we find ourselves enslaved by sin or bad habits. These contradictions can feel like walls, like unbridgeable gaps. On our own, we cannot cross them. But this is where the Cross comes in. Jesus’ obedience, his humility, his self-giving love bridges the space we cannot never cross ourselves. His Cross reconciles what is divided and brings us into union with God.

This means the Cross is not something we look at from a distance, as if it were a museum piece. It is something we are meant to live. To exalt the Cross is not only to raise it high in our churches or processions, but also to let it shape the way we live and love. The joy of being saved through the Cross should not stop with us; it should overflow into action.

If God bridged the greatest divide to reach us, then we too are called to be bridge-builders. Where there are divisions in our families, we can take the first step toward forgiveness. Where there are misunderstandings among friends, we can choose patience and compassion. Where our communities are marked by inequality or indifference, we can work for justice and kindness. To exalt the Cross is to imitate the One who hung upon it, and to extend God’s love into the places where it seems absent.

But how do we measure whether we truly believe this mystery? How do we know if it has taken root in us? I think the answer lies in something simple, humble: the Sign of the Cross.

Every time we make this gesture—in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—we are not just going through the motion. We are crossing into deeper relationship with God. We are choosing again to proclaim, “I belong to Christ.” We are reminding ourselves that salvation is real, that God’s love has reached us, that we are destined for eternal life.

The Sign of the Cross is like a daily bridge we walk across. With that small movement of the hand, we leave behind, if only for a moment, the distractions and burdens of life, and step into God’s presence. In those moments, we know again that God has bridged the gap, that heaven is open, that we will never be abandoned.

So today’s feast invites us to ask: will we cross that bridge? Will we step onto it with trust, and allow ourselves to be drawn more deeply into God’s love? And beyond that, will we live as bridge-builders in our world, carrying the love of the Cross into relationships and situations that need healing?

My friend Joshua delights in crossing bridges in every city he visits. But the greater joy is offered to us, here and now, through the Cross of Christ. This is the bridge that changes everything. It brings us into communion with God, heals our brokenness, and opens our whole being to eternal life.

All we need is the courage to walk across it. To take that step of faith. To let God’s love move us from where we are into the life He longs to give us. 

So today, as we exalt the Cross, let us not only admire it. Let us embrace it, live it, and let it send us forth as bridge-builders for God’s kingdom. For when we cross this bridge—the bridge of the Cross—we discover what God has to offer us: not only joy in eternity, but a taste of that joy here and now, in every act of mercy, every gesture of love, every moment of faith. Amen.

Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart

Photo © adrian danker, 2025, ‘crossing,’ jubilee bridge, singapore