Cross of Victory
Homily on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, 14 Sept 2025, St John Bosco Parish, Minoyan, Murcia
Several years ago there was once a big family who went out to a popular restaurant in the city for a dinner. It took quite some time for them to decide what to order since they were not used to eating out, and besides they were on a tight budget. Then after a while when the food that they ordered was served, everyone kept quiet and the father led the pray before meals. They all made the sign of the cross and closed their eyes while the father prayed on behalf of all. He spoke audibly and distinctly that everyone at table including the other customers seated near their table heard what he was saying.
Fast forward… After dinner when the father asked the waiter for the bill, he was told that everything they ordered had already been paid for. Incredibly surprised, he asked the waiter who paid for it. It was the foreign tourist who was eating in the adjacent table. He paid their bill because he was impressed by their devout prayer. He said that it was his first time to see in Catholic Philippines a family making a devout sign of the cross and praying together so spontaneously inside a restaurant. Isn’t that amazing? Sana all!
What could this story be telling you? That every time you enter a restaurant, coffee shop or a carinderia, you should pray before starting to eat, so that somebody who sees you may pay the bill for you? Well, puede rin. But the real point is this, in a very Catholic country like the Philippines, very few Catholics have the courage to express their faith and devotion in public. Many Catholics are still afraid or hesitant to pray in front of others. Many still find it awkward even just to make the sign of the cross properly for fear they might be mocked by others, persecuted or put to shame.
Brothers and sisters, today is Sunday, Sept 14, and so we gather today to celebrate not only the Day of the Lord, but also the solemn feast of the Triumph of the Cross. This feast was established to make us Catholics realize the importance and the sacredness of the Cross in our lives. As we all know and believe, it is ON the cross and THROUGH the cross that we were saved us and sanctified. The once shameful means of execution during Roman times had become the victorious means of our salvation through the Passion Death and Resurrection of Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Without the cross we would never realize how much God loves us in Jesus, his only begotten Son. Without the cross we would never feel how precious each one of us is before his eyes. And without the cross we would never find the surest way back to God, and enjoy his most loving embrace in heaven for all eternity. This explains why in every Catholic Church you will always find a big Cross installed near the altar, and why many of us enthrone the Crucifix in our homes, and wear the Cross as a necklace around our necks. This also explains why we often make the sign of the Cross on our bodies, especially at the start and at the end of our prayers.
Allow me to take you back in history and give you a glimpse of our distant past. In the first 300 years since the death and resurrection of Christ, Christianity was a persecuted religion. Christians everywhere in the Roman Empire were being arrested, tortured and put to death for the simple reason that they were Christians, for to be a Christian at that time was considered a serious crime. It was prohibited by the Roman law. Consequently, hundreds, even thousands of Christians had been martyred, victims of violence carried out by tyrant kings and cruel emperors.
Nevertheless, despite all these, the Christians continued to flourish and make their impact in the world. They increased in numbers and grew steadily as a Church, for it was said that the blood of the martyrs became the seed of new Christians. The good news is this: by God’s powerful intervention, in the year 313 A.D., Christianity was soon liberated, when Emperor Constantine decreed a law putting a definitive end to the Christian persecution. What is even more amazing is that, about 70 years later (in the year 381) Christianity was proclaimed the official religion of the Roman Empire. Why? You might curiously ask, what happened? What made the complete turnaround?
It was the Emperor Constantine who made history for us. On October 28 in the year 312, General Constantine had to battle against Maxentius who was his rival to the Roman throne. But before the fierce battle began, Constantine, still a pagan, had a strange vision. Up in the sky he saw a bright light forming a cross, with the words “In hoc signo vinces” meaning “Through this sign you shall conquer.” At first he did not understand why, but when Christ himself appeared to him and commanded him to use the sign of the cross to win a vistorious battle against his rival, Maxentius, he immediately obeyed.
And so, the following day he ordered his army to put the sign of the cross on their banner and on all their shields and horses. And when they marched against the enemy troops of Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge in Rome, they won a smashing victory that made Constantine the next Emperor of Rome. Because of what had happened, this pagan Emperor himself got converted to Christianity. And the following year, in 313 A.D. he signed a decree of religious toleration called the Edict of Milan. With that he proclaimed the definitive end of all persecutions against the Christians in the entire Roman Empire.
My dear brothers and sisters, esp. the young people who are here, we Christians believe in what God says in the Bible. But aside from that, we Catholics also believe in what God says and does in history. In the same way that we were liberated from all evil through the crucifixion of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, so also through the same symbol of the Cross used by a pagan Emperor in battle, God saved the Church from three centuries of persecution. In fact, the triumph of Christ’s cross was prophesied by Moses in the Old Testament as we have heard in the first reading, and then it was wonderfully validated in our human history particularly in the time of Emperor Constantine. And its triumphant power continues to be manifested in the world even today.
Today our lives are filled with crosses, big and small, such as the cross of poverty and corruption, the cross of bad weather, natural calamities and misfortunes, the cross of sickness and old age, the cross of failure and disappointment, the cross of toxic people and strained relationships, the cross of walking or traveling long distances just to come to church on Sunday and go to school on weekdays, the cross of brown outs, weak signals and poor wifi, the cross of doing your chores at home, your services and meetings in the parish. This is just to name a few of them.
The Cross is heavy and often times painful. And because of this we can easily complain, get discouraged and give up. But Jesus is telling us today that every time we find ourselves having to carry any of such crosses, we should carry them with faith in Him who triumphed on the Cross; and with a smile on our face knowing that we are not carrying it alone, because Jesus is on the other side carrying the cross with us. We can even help carry each other’s crosses. For we are certain that Jesus who rose from the dead after dying on the cross, will grant us a share in his glorious resurrection in eternal life.
We pray therefore that through this Eucharist we may learn to honor and venerate the Cross as the most precious and sacred sign of God’s overwhelming love for us. And at the same time, may we also be empowered to embrace our crosses as the powerful means to atain our salvation and sanctification.
Yesterday afternoon, during my encounter with you, the chosen youth of this Parish, I gave you the 5S secret of holiness. Do you still recall? Strive to be always (1) SAFE, (2) STRONG, (3) SMART, (4) SERVICE-oriented, (5) SMILING, and let me add one more S which I forgot yesterday (6) SACRAMENTAL. If we are able to maintain this 6S everyday, we will surely attain the last but most important S, which is no other than SANCTITY, the highest dream God has for each one of us. Like St. Dominic Savio, Bl. Laura Vicuna, St Carlo Acutis, St Giorgio Frassati, may all of us become saints –HOLY Catholics for the Church and HEROES for our country – for the greater glory of God. GiGsss!
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