Here are some of the themes that we find in the Mass Readings for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

1st Reading – Numbers 21:4b-9

• Filled with impatience, the people complain against God and Moses about the wretched food.
• In punishment God sends saraph serpents that bite the people and many die.
• After the people pray for forgiveness, Moses makes a bronze serpent which he fixes on a pole, and those that gaze upon it will live.

Psalm – 78:1-2,34-38

• “Do not forget the works of the Lord!”
• The psalm recalls God’s might, and how the people often strayed.

2nd Reading – Philippians 2:6-11

• Jesus “empties himself” and takes on our human form and weakness, even to death on a cross.
• Because of this, God exalted him, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Gospel – John 3:13-17

• Jesus tells Nicodemus that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
• “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…!”

Mass Readings – Exaltation of the Holy Cross (#638)