Homily of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 2025

This gospel of John is the core of our religion. “For God so loved the world that he gave his Only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” God’s love is the reason we are here at this moment. The Eucharist is “the sacrament of love.” So, we come here to praise and worship “His Love.” We are not here because we want our prayers to be answered, we are not here because of our spouses, our children, our friends, but we are here because we believe He loves us, and He wants to give us his Body and Blood.

Charles Kirk, before he died, brought his family to visit the Immaculate Conception Basilica in Washington DC. When they stood at the front door and looked up to the altar, his daughter pointed to the big crucifix on the sanctuary and asked: Why is He up there? Charles replied: It is God who defeats death for us to live. I think it is an excellent answer for his three-year-old daughter. His answer was fit to the gospel of John today. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are your Catholic faith bold? In the last couple weeks, God gives the world many witnesses of bold strong faith. Last Sunday, Pope Leo canonized two young saints: Saint Pier Frassati and saint Carlos Curtis. Three days after that, Charles Kirk died for what he believed was the Truth. All three people from different times, places and religions but witnessed the same truth of the gospel. I wonder how my faith can be bold and strong like them? I know now, I can only be a witness for Christ, when my faith is strong and bold.

There are three things we can do to have bold faith. 1/ we must know the scriptures. We need to nurture our mind by the Word of God, the wisdom of the saints, and examples of holy people in the world. 2/ We must pray. Without praying, our faith cannot be strong; saint Carlos said: if we are near to the sun, we will get tanned. But if we are near to Jesus, we will be saints. Saint Pier said: “Verso l’alto!” “To the height”; start devotional prayers like rosary, visit the Blessed Sacraments, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, etc. is helpful to our faith. 3/ to participate in charity work: help the poor, the sick and community; generally, keep your faith active and alive.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Catholic faith must be rooted in “love”; love responds to love. God’s love can always change the human heart. All the saints believed that God loved them more than they loved God. So, they are always humble and trust in God’s mercy and almighty. We must do the same by acknowledging that whatever we did to our church and to our brothers and sisters for the sake of God, they are nothing to compare to God’s love who gave us his Only Son for our salvation.