September 14, 2025
Revised Common Lectionary
Numbers 21:4b-9
Psalm 98:1-5 or Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
John 3:13-17
Lectionary for Mass (RC)
Numbers 21:4b-9
Psalm 78:1-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38 (see 7b)
Philippians 2:6-11
John 3:13-17
The reflection below is based on Scripture readings for the Feast of the Holy Cross, which falls on Sunday this year. For communities not celebrating the Holy Cross today, a reflection for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 19), Year C, may be found here.
Have you ever noticed that crosses seem to be everywhere? They not only sit atop church buildings and at the front of sanctuaries—they are also seen on hilltops along busy highways, emblazoned on t-shirts, and dangling from chains around people’s necks. The cross is such a common sight that I wonder how much of an impact that image has on our understanding of Jesus and his death. Has this ancient instrument of execution become so commonplace that we barely notice its revolutionary message?
The Roman occupiers of Jesus’s time devised the cross as an instrument of terror. They inflicted death by crucifixion on those who threatened the power of the empire in a manner that was protracted, painful, humiliating, and in plain view of the local population. The Romans carried out crucifixions along public roads as a way of creating fear and holding onto power. No wonder that Paul wrote to the Corinthians that proclaiming Christ crucified is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23).
Yet this is precisely what makes the cross so revolutionary. By embracing what Rome designed as ultimate defeat, Jesus transformed it into a sign of hope, an instrument of power, and a source of life. In today’s Gospel reading, he tells the fearful Nicodemus that “the Son of Man [must] be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14-15). As Jesus is lifted up on the cross, God’s love and power are revealed.
Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus refers to his “hour” when he will be “glorified.” That moment comes when he is enthroned on the cross. John’s irony is breathtaking—the moment that appears to be Jesus’s greatest defeat is actually his coronation.
The details of John’s Passion narrative reinforce this paradox. In his exchange with Pilate, for example, it is clearly Jesus who is in charge, as expressed in his retort to Pilate, “you would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above” (Jn 19:11). John also recounts that after Jesus had given up his spirit, his body was pierced with a spear and “at once blood and water came out” (Jn 19:34). From his death on the cross, life is poured out for the world.
Because Christians have come to see the cross as a sign of God’s deep love for the world, we lift it high and sing hymns that extol the cross as a sign of victory, echoing Paul’s affirmation that “the message of the cross” is nothing less than “the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). The cross stands among us as a reminder that God’s power and love are for the refugee family seeking safety, the worker facing job loss, the person battling addiction—for all who suffer in any way.
The Holy Cross represents God’s topsy-turvy ways in which death brings life and human wisdom is confounded. The question for us is whether we can embrace this same topsy-turvy logic in our own lives—finding God’s power in our weakness and discovering that true victory often looks nothing like the world’s definition of success. We rejoice in the cross because it is the way to freedom, justice, and life—today and every day.
A Hymn for Today: “Faithful cross”
The sixth-century Latin hymn Crux fidelis (“Faithful cross”) forms part of a longer text, “Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminus,” attributed to bishop, poet, and hymnwriter Venantius Fortunatus. This hymn has traditionally been sung in the Good Friday liturgies of many churches during the Veneration of the Cross. The best-known English version of the full text is “Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle,” a translation by John Mason Neale (1818-1866). The hymn is rich in scriptural references and expresses a spirit of wonder, gratitude, and praise for God’s unfathomable love for humanity that is poured out on the cross.
Listen here for a contemporary setting in English by Singaporean-American composer Chris de Silva, who currently serves as a member of The Hymn Society Executive Committee. The composer has added two refrains from the Crux fidelis portion that are sung in alternation between the stanzas of the full hymn. These refrains are adapted from Neale’s nineteenth century translation and paired with a twenty-first century translation of the full hymn text that was created for the Roman Missal (third edition, 2010). This new translation uses vivid language to convey the powerful message of Christ’s victory on the cross.
Refrain I
Faithful cross, the saints rely on,
noble tree beyond compare!
Never was there such a scion,
never leaf or flow’r so rare.
Refrain II
Sweet the timber, sweet the iron,
sweet the burden that they bear!
1. Sing, my tongue, in exultation
Of our banner and device!
Make a solemn proclamation
Of a triumph and its price:
How the Savior of creation
Conquered by his sacrifice! Ref I
2. For, when Adam first offended,
Eating that forbidden fruit,
Not all hopes of glory ended
With the serpent at the root:
Broken nature would be mended
By a second tree and shoot. Ref II
3. Thus the tempter was outwitted
By a wisdom deeper still:
Remedy and ailment fitted,
Means to cure and means to kill;
That the world might be acquitted,
` Christ would do his Father’s will. Ref I
4. So the Father, out of pity
For our self-inflicted doom,
Sent him from the heav’nly city
When the holy time had come:
He, the Son and the Almighty,
Took our flesh in Mary’s womb. Ref II
5. Hear a tiny baby crying,
Founder of the seas and strands;
See his virgin Mother tying
Cloth around his feet and hands;
Find him in a manger lying
Tightly wrapped in swaddling bands! Ref I
6. So he came, the long-expected,
Not in glory, not to reign;
Only born to be rejected,
Choosing hunger, toil and pain,
Till the scaffold was erected
And the Paschal Lamb was slain. Ref II
7. No disgrace was too abhorrent:
Nailed and mocked and parched he died;
Blood and water, double warrant,
Issue from his wounded side,
Washing in a mighty torrent
Earth and stars and oceantide. Ref I
8. Lofty timber, smooth your roughness,
Flex your boughs for blossoming;
Let your fibers lose their toughness,
Gently let your tendrils cling;
Lay aside your native gruffness,
Clasp the body of your king! Ref II
9. Noblest tree of all created,
Richly jeweled and embossed:
Post by Lamb’s blood consecrated;
Spar that saves the tempest-tossed;
Scaffold-beam which, elevated,
Carries what the world has cost! Ref I
Text: Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis / Crux fidelis, Venantius Fortunatus, 6th cent.; trans. Roman Missal, © 2010, ICEL. Used by permission under OneLicense #A-729857
Tune: Chris de Silva, b. 1967, GIA Publications
Image: Cruz de los Ángeles, Crux gemmata, Wikimedia Commons, 2019
“Word and Song: A Lectionary Reflection” is written by the Executive Director of The Hymn Society, Rev. Dr. Mike McMahon. For his full bio, click here and scroll down to the “staff” section.
To receive these weekly reflections by email, please send a message to office@thehymnsociety.org and type “Lectionary” in the subject line.