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Why is September 14 set as Holy Cross Day?
There are two main reasons. In Constantine’s time, this was the day the ground of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was set aside as a place of worship. It was also the day Constantine’s mother, Helena, supposedly helped discover the True Cross Jesus died on.
Now if you put the supposed True Cross fragments together, you’d have enough to make something like hundreds of crosses. But that is not what ultimately matters here.
Having been to the Holy Sepulchre, there is something fantastically spectacular about it. You can feel the presence of the Spirit there, even though the building can only be described as a strange hodgepodge of architectural styles, and even though it is more a tourist and pilgrimage site than a place of worship, and even though the denominational fighting within our Faith has confused who can actually worship where.
It is because it places the event of Jesus’ crucifixion squarely in time. We may not have the True Cross still, if we ever did, but we do know the spot, more or less, where Jesus died, and we do have some sense where the Resurrection occurred as well.
Jesus’ death and Resurrection aren’t just metaphorical or symbolic or what-have-you occurrences. They are events that happened in this world, and that they are real should give us hope because it means we have that chance for resurrection too.
When you think of Holy Cross Day, I hope this is what you will take away: Jesus died for you and me. That happened, and it has opened a whole new life of hope for all of us.