Once a husband had a quarrel with his wife. He went to church and when he came home, he suddenly lifted his wife and carried her around. The startled wife said, “Why did you do that? Did the priest tell you to be romantic?”

“No! He told me to carry my cross!” he replied. (It could be the other way around. But the husband is a heavier cross to carry).

For many the cross is the symbol of shame and defeat. But for Christ and Christians, it is a symbol of victory. The Church highlights this paradox when it designated the 24th Sunday as a feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

It is through the cross that God manifested his greatest love for mankind. That is why John the evangelist writes in this Sunday gospel: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him” (Jn. 3,16).

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The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “The reason of His coming was to allow all of the sins of the world to be visited upon him as if he himself were guilty.”

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In the first reading, God punished the grumbling, stiff-necked Israelites by sending poisonous snakes. But then in his mercy, he commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and erect it as a standard. The people who were bitten were cured by turning in faith toward the bronze serpent (read Numbers 21,8).

Jesus Himself saw in the lifting up of the serpent as a sign of his own lifting up on the cross and healing of our sins.

Did you know that the biblical image of the snake coiled around a pole was taken by the medical profession as the symbol of healing?

You cannot achieve glory without the cross or suffering. As the marines toughened by rigorous training say, “No guts, no glory”; the policemen — not the “hulidap” cops! — say, “No pain, no gain,” and the security guards? “No ID, no entry.”

This truth applies in every human endeavour. For instance, you cannot be a champion in sports unless you undergo the crucible of long, dreary hours of training; in academics, you cannot be a dean’s lister if you don’t burn the proverbial midnight oil; in your profession, you don't get promoted if you don’t “take pains” to be responsible and diligent.

Some crosses, however, are inevitable or beyond human control like destructive calamities, sicknesses, accidents, unjust treatments.

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The beautiful prayer of the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr may serve as inspiration: “God, grant me the “serenity” to accept the things I cannot change, the “courage” to change the things I can change, and the “wisdom” to know the difference (between the two).

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The lighter side. In a dream, a man saw himself walking on a beach with the Lord, carrying someone in His arms. He was envious.

Jesus felt his envious tone when he asked: “Lord, why are you carrying him and not me?” So He said: “It’s because he has arthritis and you have none.”

Lesson: Don’t envy others and judge rashly.

Love is blind and lovers cannot see. Therefore, marriage is an institution for the blind.

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Thank you — Here’s what one donor to our “Adopt-A- Seminarian” educational program wrote: “My sons have no vocation to the priesthood so I might as well help others become priests.” Very inspiring.

Donate any amount or sponsor a seminarian’s schooling good for one year. For inquiry, e-mail: [email protected].