Saint Gilbert and the mistery of the cross

       

         The cross is closely linked to the Passion of Christ and our salvation. It is the most eloquent symbol of God's love for us. The cross conquered death and gave us eternal life. For this reason it is just that it should be celebrated, exalted and venerated by all of us.

          The Exaltation of the Holy Cross leads us to reflect on how much God has loved us in his Son, allowing him to rise in it and guarantee our lives. She became the tree of life. The tree that nullified the first tree in the garden that brought us to ruin.  According to St. John, the title Son of Man is linked to the "ascending-descending" model: "No one has ascended into heaven but the Son of man who came down from heaven" (John 3:13).

There is only one that "ascended" to the heavens, because it first came from there: the "Son of Man." Only he can bring the divine revelation because it has its origin in heaven. And the Son of Man can only be Jesus of Nazareth. Only Jesus is the revealer and the messenger of God. And Jesus adds, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life" (Jn 3: 14-15).

In the wilderness the people revolted and murmured against God and against Moses (Numbers 21:4-9). Then God sent venomous snakes that bit and many Israelites died. The people, repenting, begged Moses, "Pray to God to deliver us from serpents." Moses interceded for the people and, inspired by God, raised a bronze serpent. Anyone who was bitten if he looked at her would be saved.

For Saint Gilbert this feast is very much linked to his life because it was on this day, September 14, Exaltation of the Holy Cross that he received from the hands of Pope Blessed Eugene III the approval of the Statutes of Sempringham. Thus his order is intimately bound up with the mystery of the Lord's cross.

It is from this mystery that he will also commune with his embrace of the cross, as anyone who wishes to follow Christ more closely is invited by Jesus himself to embrace his cross every day. As in ancient Israel, today we are motivated to glimpse our victory on the cross.

Thus, the serpent erected in the desert symbolizes the Christ raised on the cross, who saves from the death of sin. "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved" (Jn 3:17).

How many times we walk through the desert of this world, we are stung by the evil serpents that are our sins: selfishness, avarice, sensuality, longing for power, lack of charity, our omissions ...

That through the intercession of St. Gilbert we can every day look for the great sign of our salvation and see in it that our call is to fulfill in our lives the vocation that the Lord has given us: our sanctification.