Heart of the Homily

Episode 006 - Podcast | The Exaltation of the Cross: Jesus Redeemed the Cross

• St Augustine Catholic Parish • Season 1 • Episode 6

Share episode

We explore the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and its powerful message for today's polarized culture, especially in light of recent violence on college campuses. The cross teaches us that responding to violence with love is not weakness but the ultimate strength.

• The cross was meant to be a symbol of defeat but became the greatest sign of love and salvation
• Christianity doesn't offer escape from suffering but provides a way to transform it
• Campus ministry creates safe spaces for students to ask questions and wrestle with truth
• Truth is not something to impose but something to witness through how we live
• Speaking truth with love means creating space for others to grow without judgment
• Violence against speech threatens truth itself and undermines the purpose of education
• Every fear, sin, and sorrow was transformed by Christ on the cross
• Love has the final word - this is the message of the cross that gives freedom from anxiety

Michelle:

Welcome back to Heart of the Homily podcast. We are so delighted to have you. This is actually our third podcast, Father. What do you think about that?

FR. Vigoa:

Wow, already three. I'm enjoying it. How about you?

Michelle:

I'm enjoying it too. It's actually been wonderful to be able to sit and chat and really just unpack the homily for our parishioners and also for myself.

FR. Vigoa:

Yeah, and you know a lot of people have written to me or they'll see me after mass say I love it, keep it going, do it. So that's the point of the whole thing is, hopefully, that people are able to watch it and so that the homily just doesn't say on Sunday that you can carry it a little bit with you and how do you apply it to your life. So a lot of good stuff From the pews into our daily life so wonderful.

Michelle:

Well, today we are looking at yesterday, which is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, so a very powerful Sunday gospel and theme. So before we start, I'll just read it because it is a little short. So we're looking at the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 13 to 17. So Jesus said to Nicodemus no one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the son of man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the son of man be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that through the world, might be saved through him. Amen.

Michelle:

So a powerful gospel and also one that's very well known, that um for God, so that the world is a beautiful one. To be able to kind of look at the feast of the exaltation of the cross which, father, your homily yesterday, was very powerful. It had so many different elements that I I mean spoke to me personally, but I've had many conversations with people about just how you really brought it into the reality of what's happening in our culture and our day. And also, how do you, how do you, prepare for something like that?

FR. Vigoa:

Right, it's not easy, and especially with the events of this past week with the shooting of Charlie Kirk, and we had a lot of students. We're in a student community, right, so this is what's important to them, this is what they're talking about, and when you have students coming into your office, when you have students coming to church and they're wanting to talk about this, you have to address it. And a lot of people think, well, you can't be political, father. The pulpit is not for politics. Well, I agree, but the church has a place in the public square. I don't think that the pulpit should be used for politics, but how do you take what's happening in every people's lives and this is something that they're dealing with and how do you address it in the homily? It's not easy.

Michelle:

Not easy at all.

FR. Vigoa:

It's not easy because you want to bring together everyone. I had students that deeply disagreed with Charlie Kirk but who, like the other students who agreed with Charlie Kirk, were saying this is not acceptable. This is scary, because a lot of these students want to enter into dialogue, they want to be able to discuss ideas and opinions, and so they're saying to themselves wow, if college, where it's supposed to happen, is not a safe place, where are we? And so then that's where I was, through prayer and starting to prepare the home, because I have to tell you, we just had a reference to the cross the weekend before. Right, remember that Jesus saying unless you, if you don't pick up your cross and pick it up every day and follow me, you cannot be my disciples. So, if you remember, we talked about the cross last week, and so I would say how do you make this different? How do you open it up? And so then on Wednesday, when we had this national sort of crisis, is when I decided, okay, it needs to be addressed.

Michelle:

Yeah, and I think in the beginning of your homily too is powerful, because you were talking about that. This great feast day is not just remembering the cross, but exalting it. So I wanted to ask, like, what does that mean to exalt the cross?

FR. Vigoa:

And one of the things that I was going to talk about because you and I were together we last week we were three days giving a workshop to the seminarians up in Boynton Beach on the new evangelization and leadership, and one of the things that I was praying about because I already knew what the scriptures, the gospel for Sunday one of the things that I was praying is is for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son so that those who believe may not perish. Right, and so one of the things that I asked the seminarians was this this John 3.16 has three parts to it. Right, so God loves us so much that we communicate, that his mode of loving us, his mode of relationship, is through his son. Right, so that God loves us so much that he sends his son. Why? So that his son can show us the way to eternal life, so that his son can show us how to live a righteous life. And then the other part that goes to that, the second part of that is for those who believe. So we have to have that conscious decision to say Jesus Christ is Lord, jesus Christ is my Savior, this is who I'm giving my life to.

FR. Vigoa:

And then the third part is why do we evangelize? If everyone's going to be saved, then why do we need to evangelize? Why do we need to bring people to the church? Why do we need to bring people to an awareness that Jesus Christ is Lord, if everyone is going to be saved? And so that was the angle that I thought that I was going to go in right at the beginning of the week, when I started praying with the scriptures for Sunday, and then on Wednesday I was driving home and of course, that was what was blowing up all over the world, and then it kind of shifted. And that's when I decided, okay, I need to address this.

Michelle:

Yeah.

FR. Vigoa:

Right yeah.

Michelle:

And yeah, and what you're saying, to even that scripture, for God so loved the world, that, like you're saying that Jesus came to save us and also to show us the way to live, and also to show us the way to suffer and the way to mourn and what to do in the face of violence, right, and that's exactly what I was trying to talk about.

FR. Vigoa:

What I was trying to talk about, that was the point. The bullseye, that, all right, how do I respond to this? Well, jesus taught us how to respond to violence, because the greatest violence, this torture, this instrument of torture, right, this, the cross was, should be or would have been seen by many that that was a defeat. We defeated you. We were able to silence you, we were able to get rid of you so that this religion will be no more. So this crazy itinerant preacher can do no more harm, and so let's get rid of him. And so what I was trying to do with this homily is say wait, wait.

FR. Vigoa:

And so what I was trying to do with this homily is say wait, wait, wait. We all need to take a step back. Look at the cross again, look at the cross of Jesus Christ and say Jesus Christ is Lord. And he teaches us how to respond to a violent world, a world that wants to silence us, a world that wants to cancel us, a world that says no, you don't have a place here, you don't have a voice here, you don't have a voice here, you, you, you step down. And my whole thing was we need to go back to the cross, and if we can understand the cross, the suffering of the cross, how the cross shapes our daily life, then we have the answers that we need, because Jesus Christ gives us that.

Michelle:

And I think that's a hard place for most people is that the cross is not something to run from. I think in our culture no one wants to be inconvenienced and really a powerful point of your homily is that you were talking about that. It's not like the cross in our life isn't a distraction. It's not something that's like to run from or to be discouraged by, but to embrace and know that it's through the cross that the resurrection is experienced. And also it's not something that Christianity is about avoiding suffering, but knowing that it's part of the story.

FR. Vigoa:

Yeah, and it's those people who are able to embrace the cross, to see the suffering, like we mentioned last week, not just suffering for suffering's sake, but where my cross is. A daily understanding of it shapes my life. It tells me who I am, even in illness, even in difficulties or whatever it is that I'm able to really draw close to Jesus. I have a path I know where it leads me to or eventually will lead me to, and so, you're right, it helps me deal with that illness or that difficulty.

Michelle:

Yeah, and even in the face of something like this, being able to know that the response is not one of fear, but being able to look at what's happening and respond with courage and trust and abandonment to God's will, and also knowing that the suffering that we are experiencing, like that Christ is in the midst of that, transforming it for good. So I guess one thing that kind of comes to mind is it feels so central, this theme of like that Christianity isn't escaping suffering, but transforming it. It feels so central, this theme of like that Christianity isn't escaping suffering, but transforming it. How does someone engage with that in their own life of faith, looking at different circumstances and situations of their own, being able to really exult in the cross that they experience instead of thinking it's going to destroy them. And that's something that you a language that you used in your homily was that the cross isn't there to destroy us, but something to save us.

FR. Vigoa:

Exactly right and that's the whole key. Right there it's. And when you come into a very difficult time in your life, there's that tendency to be angry, to walk away, to not really fully understand. And so how does the cross transform you into a passion for the Lord and not a lukewarm faith? Because I think that one of the things I was talking about a lukewarm faith and it's this idea that I want everything God's blessings, God's protection I want, but I'm not going to give my part, I'm still going to stay comfortable or on the sidelines.

FR. Vigoa:

And what the cross is saying, no, you've got to be engaged. You've got to be engaged, You've got to face it, You've got to see it head on. And that's hard, that is scary. Like one of the things that I said in the homily is that looking at the cross is looking into the mirror, because that cross is going to say to you are you able to follow me? Are you able to give your life for me? Are you able to put your own views, your own opinions, your own pride aside to say, no, I'm all in, I will follow you, Not in a halfway kind of walk, but to say what is it? What will it take for me to finally say that yes, because I need to be reconciled to the cross.

Michelle:

Yeah, and that's at the heart of what the good news of the gospel is, is that we don't have to fear anything, even suffering, even death.

FR. Vigoa:

And why do you think people do?

Michelle:

Well, I think there's a natural tendency to self-preserve, right To like, want to be okay, and which is a good thing.

Michelle:

Like you know, god wants us to take care of ourselves.

Michelle:

But I think what we're talking about too is that you know we live in a fallen world and so suffering is just a part of the story of the human life, and that you were saying how Jesus, right through his cross, through his death, which I always am so fascinated this is the uniqueness of Christianity is that God became man and the worst thing that we could have ever done like it already happened, which is that he would become man and we would kill him Like the worst thing that ever could have happened in human history.

Michelle:

It happened when Jesus showed up, god made man and we and we killed him, and God made that big mistake into the first step of our salvation. So he took even the worst thing that could have happened in the universe and made it the first step of the best thing for humanity, and so it kind of like reflects in our own life that even the worst of things that we could encounter, if we entrust it to Jesus, he's going to do that same story with it. That Paschal mystery is going to be lived out in our own life, where we're able to unite that cross with his, and even the worst of things in our life, that with trust he will use it as a step, the next step of the best of things, that he'll always bring that resurrection, that new life through it.

FR. Vigoa:

The next step of the best of things that he'll always bring that resurrection, that new life through it.

Michelle:

Yeah, that greatest sign of defeat became the greatest act of love, which is so powerful when you think about it, like the cross that was meant to say all this is now something that you wear on your neck, that you put on the wall. That means salvation, that means freedom, that means new life.

FR. Vigoa:

But I think you alluded to it earlier it can't just be a decoration, right? A lot of people want to keep it just as a decoration. Yeah, you know, people wear crosses on around their necks. They they have maybe in their home, um, but it's.

FR. Vigoa:

It's fascinating to me that this instrument of torture becomes the greatest act of love, where love poured from that cross. And that's that's our response, ultimately, to a world in trouble, to a world that's fractured. That is is no, I will love. I will love because that's how Jesus taught me to respond to violence. So my whole thing cannot be okay, it's the enemy must be destroyed. No, the enemy must be treated with love, and the world needs to see that that's how I treat those who speak ill of me or those who treat me bad, these college students. They need to learn that. And what I'm seeing is and you're seeing this now is this great desire to be at church, to be in prayer, to be in community. That's huge. That's huge. That's a huge response. If there's anything that came out of all of this, is that they're asking the right questions and they're asking the hard questions.

Michelle:

Absolutely, and I think that's what people need to see is witness.

FR. Vigoa:

Witness.

Michelle:

Witness of like you know why people are afraid of the cross is most of the time they haven't seen someone embrace it with courage and embrace it like Christ did. And I think those witnesses transform people's, even approach the cross, knowing that it's not something to fear but something to surrender and trust. And I think, even in the moment, right now, that we find ourselves like it's important to be witnesses of love and witnesses of truth for our culture today. So maybe I just wanted to mention that you address pretty beautifully and tactfully just like the tragedy of last week with the shooting of Charlie Kirk, and how violence is a response, that violence in response to speech is not just a political issue but it's a betrayal of the cross.

FR. Vigoa:

It is a betrayal of the cross.

Michelle:

Why was it important to kind of connect that to the feast day? Like what kind of was you know what were you thinking in connecting it to this triumph of the cross?

FR. Vigoa:

Well, I think what I was trying to say is that it threatens, violence, threatens truth, violence threatens truth. And if you're a young person who is searching for truth and you're not able to have those safe places or safe areas where you can question truth because I've said this a lot in different podcasts and talking to people is that if you don't go through that struggle of really knowing who you are and where is truth because and I mentioned in the homily this idea that you can't just invent truth for yourself there's a truth that lies outside of yourself and that truth is Jesus Christ. But for some people it takes a long time, or it takes them a path to be able to discover that Right. It's not just like one day. You just oh, I know it all.

Michelle:

Yeah.

FR. Vigoa:

And, and the thing is that um college is a place where that needs to happen. That's why our campus ministry program is so important.

Michelle:

Absolutely, and that's I mean, that's the great, noble adventure of the human person, is to seek, is to wrestle with truth, is to engage in that, and I think, even I think, about our patron, st Augustine.

Michelle:

like there's a man like that knew his desires and wrestled with truth and came to a place of great fulfillment when he found the truth that was in Jesus. Fulfillment when, you know, he found the truth that was in Jesus. And I think that's something there needs to be a space for people to be able to ask questions, to wrestle into, know that that's a part of the beauty of human flourishing is to be able to ask those questions.

FR. Vigoa:

And I think that that's part of our American way, americana, like it's who we are as Americans, and I hope that that's who we are as Americans, that our, our first amendment right is to be able to have free speech and to have dialogue and engagement. Um, because it's a very sad thing if, uh, you don't have that, like we were talking about it. I can't tell you how many times I'm around campus or I went to the Catholic center and, walking back to the parish, there will be a student that will come up to me to ask me a very important question, something that they're struggling with or something that they're going through in their life. Or it always father, what do you think about this? Or I'm struggling with this, can you help me with this? So kids are asking very important questions.

FR. Vigoa:

You've seen it where we'll have a thrive night, where they're asking the priest, they're asking you, the campus minister, or they're asking one of ours what do you, what does the church teach about this, or what do we think about this? Why? Because they've heard something out here and they want to check about what the church teaches over here, so that they can kind of say, oh okay, I think I understand how I want to live, in the sense that it's through the teachings of the church. Why? Because you come to understand that truth is not something that it's your own made up reality.

Michelle:

And that truth is, you know, I mean this is at the heart of the cross that Jesus himself said that he is the truth, and it's the truth in discovering how to fully live alive. Like how to fully live our humanity in the fullness.

FR. Vigoa:

And then, when you know the truth, or when you're struggling to understand the truth, you come to know very quickly that truth is not something that you impose. Truth is not something that you use as a sword. Truth becomes how you witness. Yeah, because I'll tell you, you can have the most beautiful philosophies, great arguments, know all the theology in the world, but if you're a horrible, miserable person, you're not going to convince anybody of anything. And so that's what we we've been talking about.

Michelle:

And also a lot. You've been calling people to rise from mediocrity to like commitment to Christ, and I think again, that's kind of like helping people move from a place of like being comfortable and even being mediocre in their faith, kind of faith not merely engaging with it, but coming to a place of great engagement, great conviction to be a witness, because the best witness is someone that's fully living but they believe Exactly right, and that's what our culture needs is a renewed sense and understanding of the beauty of Christianity.

FR. Vigoa:

And that's what I tried to communicate to the parents. We had the parents and the students at the 10 am Mass which, by the way, you did a phenomenal job with the reception afterwards. People were and I'm phenomenal job with the reception afterwards. I'm so glad it didn't rain, it was just beautiful, thank God, I know it was beautiful out.

FR. Vigoa:

Thank you, jesus, so beautiful. One of the things that I was telling the parents is that it's scary to drop your kid off at school and then go back home, wherever it is. I was asking where are you from? New Jersey, buffalo, new York? There were people there from St Louis, people from California, just people from everywhere.

FR. Vigoa:

Right, and one of the things that I was telling the university parents is that they, they want their children to be able to thrive, to be able to stretch, to learn, and, and they want them to be safe, but not just from physical harm. They want them to be safe from a world that wants to cancel them or a world that wants to control them or teach them. You know, stay within your limits. Let me tell you what you need to think or let me tell you how you need to be. That's dangerous.

FR. Vigoa:

And so my whole point was parents. Let's be clear. Our goal is to, yes, protect our students, um, not just by locking the doors, but allowing them to have a safe space where they can pray together, they can have community, know that they're not alone, that we belong, and that they have a place where they can share their views and ask the hard questions, because they're not going to know everything off the bat, they're not going to be comfortable with everything. They live in a world where they get bombarded with different views, different opinions, different ideologies, and so they may get to a place and say, oh, that makes sense, yeah, let's go with that, whatever that is. And then they hear from us, or they hear from the church is saying, well, maybe that needs to be looked at again, because let me give you this perspective, let me give you what the church teaches, let me teach you what Christ is saying to you.

Michelle:

Yeah, and to see that the church is well the church and God is all about freedom, you know, and really, helping people to see the.

Michelle:

The church is well, the church and God is all about freedom, you know, and really helping people to see the dignity of the human person, that people are not things and that they should be respected and treated with love, and to be able to give space for human flourishing. And freedom, you know, exists for the sake of love. To be able to help people come to a greater sense of who they are and to wrestle with truth and wrestle with ideas and to ask questions like this is all part of the great development of a human person and the college space is supposed to be that, supposed to be that time where they can really engage academically and spiritually and emotionally to become, you know, fully alive. And I think that's the beauty of campus ministry is setting those opportunities to really help them discover those things.

FR. Vigoa:

And one of the things that I wanted to highlight that and I'm going to remind the team too is that I want them to be able to speak truth with love, to be courteous, to be respectful not everybody's going to be where you are.

FR. Vigoa:

They're not going to be at the level that you are, or not going to understand the world, that like you do, or but to give other students, people, the safe space to allow them to grow, allow them to ask the important questions, because if you love the truth and you've come to know the truth, well then now you got to speak the truth with love and not beat them over the head, cause one of the things that I said this weekend is I don't care what side of the aisle you sit on, I don't care, I don't care if you're liberal, conservative, republican, democrat, I don't care.

FR. Vigoa:

But the moment that we use violence to silence people, when we use bullets instead of words, especially on a campus, a college campus, we are lost and everybody loses, not just that campus, not just the kids, society, humanity. It's not who we are as Americans and it's very scary. That's why I think that a lot of people have been so moved. Why? Because they want to recover that again. You know they want to recover that idea of this is who we are and this is who we've always been. Yes, we've had my parents from the 60s. We've seen political violence and it's been there, but it doesn't mean that it always has to be. We need to figure out ways to help the newer generations understand there's a better way, even if you don't agree with someone.

Michelle:

And I think that's where we need witnesses we don't have so many witnesses that are having those conversations to be able to show, give a model of like, what respect, what integrity looks like when you're able to have dialogue with people of different understandings and faiths and being able to be in a place to respectfully love and get along with someone you know like. I think the world is in need of great witnesses like that. And so maybe, as we're wrapping up, father, you know you close your homily with a very like pastoral heart, saying that you are not abandoned, you are not forgotten, you're not alone. And really, for anyone that's listening today, who's maybe either scared because of the events that happened, or just feeling like the cross is too much, or just looking at our situation, our world, like with fear, what are some? What do you want them to hold on to?

FR. Vigoa:

Yeah, I. This was powerful, because a lot of people told me that this gave them freedom. Because a lot of people told me that this gave them freedom. They didn't know how to unpack or how to deal with being scared, being anxious, being very worried, being judgmental, and so when I told them, I said I don't.

FR. Vigoa:

If you're anxious, if you're way down, whatever it is that you're going through right now, I want you to know that Jesus Christ is Lord. If you're able to say Jesus Christ is Lord and I go to the cross and it is there that he teaches me this love that poured out, that that's how I need to respond Then, all of a sudden, something comes over me in the sense that I have this newfound peace that he's the one, he is the one. Jesus Christ is Lord and he will take care of us. Because every fear, every sin, every sorrow, christ took that and transformed it already for us. Why? Because every sin, every death, all of that was not able to prevail. Only love prevailed at the end, and love will always prevail.

FR. Vigoa:

And I think that something clicked in a lot of people when I said that and that's beautiful, because even me, myself, I was yeah, that's where we need to be, that's how we need to respond. That's how that's beautiful, because even me myself, I was yeah. That's where we need to be, that's how we need to respond, that's how that's the energy, that's the love to say no, I love you more. I love you more because now I see what you've done in my life and how I'm able to reconcile these hurts, these anxieties, this, this worry. I'm able to reconcile it so that I know what to do with it. My response it should be a witness of love always.

Michelle:

Amen, and right now it's a big moment for all of us Christians to be able to be a witness to love, like to know how to respond and to do that, to be the witness that's needed in our world of what, of what the cross means and what we do in the midst of the joys of the Christian life and also the great sorrows and great moments of pain and hurt. Yeah, because the cross means and what we do in the midst of the joys of the Christian life and also the great sorrows and great moments of pain and hurt.

FR. Vigoa:

Yeah, because the cross teaches us. The cross teaches us, love has the final word. And how easy is that? Like we know that. But then when you say it, or you you're able to meditate on that or to chew on it you say, absolutely, Jesus Christ is Lord, Love has the final word.

Michelle:

Yeah, and I think that's a great invitation for all of us this week is to really look at the cross and say that that love has the final word and to let the cross have this renewed depth and meaning in our own life, to be able to really know that and to unite our pain and sufferings to the cross, to know that love has the final word and that Jesus shows us that profoundly and it's the invitation that that's lived out in our own life. However, that looks so powerful stuff we could talk for maybe five more hours about this topic but we are wrapping up now.

Michelle:

So if you like this episode, of course we invite you to share it with a friend and for more information, to be a part of our community, we invite you to join us for Sunday Mass, visit our website, sanagustinchurchorg, or on Instagram and, of course, please, we encourage you to listen to Father's full homily on our website, and you can click on the YouTube link there. So thanks, father, for this great conversation.

FR. Vigoa:

Good job, Michelle. Thank you.

Michelle:

Take care.