The Cross: Tree of Life, Sign of Redemption

On Sept 14, the Church celebrates the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Why should the cross be exalted?

The famous Latin hymn “Crux Fidelis” (Faithful Cross), attributed to Venantius Fortunatus in the 6th century, beautifully captures the paradoxical nature of the Cross. It calls the cross a tree “nobler than any other” because it bore the Savior of the world. For Christians, this hymn embodies a theology of the Cross that sees it both as a paradox, shame transformed into glory, and as a sacramental sign of redemption. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross echoes this same truth. On that day, the Cross is lifted high not only as a reminder of Christ’s suffering, but as the tree of life itself, the very instrument through which salvation was accomplished.

While hymnody and liturgy proclaim the Cross as a symbol of life and redemption, its historical context has long invited reflection. Roman crucifixion employed various structures, primarily the simple cross (a single stake) and the compound cross (an upright post with a crosspiece). Scholars generally agree that Jesus was crucified on a compound cross.

As the Gospel took root in new lands, communities expressed the Cross through their own cultural and theological lenses. As a result, different forms of the Cross emerged over time, among them:

Latin Cross (†): the familiar form with a shorter upright beam extending above the crossbar, most dominant in the West, highlighting Christ’s sacrificial death.

Greek Cross (✚): with equal arms, most dominant in the East, symbolizing harmony and universality.

Tau Cross (Τ): shaped like the Greek letter tau, forming a T-shaped structure.

St. Andrew’s Cross (X): traditionally associated with the martyrdom of St. Andrew.

Orthodox Three-Bar Cross: with its slanted footrest, symbolizing both judgment and salvation.

From reflections on the form and meaning of the Cross, the Christian imagination naturally turns to its discovery,  a tradition most famously associated with Empress Helena, the devout mother of Emperor Constantine. Her pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 326 A.D. is among the most enduring stories of Christian devotion. According to legend, Helena traveled to Jerusalem with the express purpose of uncovering the sacred sites of Christ’s Passion. At that time, a pagan temple built by Emperor Hadrian stood on the site of Golgotha. Helena ordered its demolition, and beneath the ruins workers unearthed three wooden crosses. Since Jesus had been crucified with two thieves, the challenge was to determine which cross was truly His. The answer came, tradition says, when a dying woman was brought forward and touched by each cross in turn. Upon touching the third, she was miraculously healed. This was proclaimed the True Cross of Christ, and Helena ensured its veneration.

Later Church historian Socrates Scholasticus recounts that Helena not only discovered the True Cross but also took decisive steps to enshrine it. She built the Church of the New Jerusalem in Jerusalem and deposited a portion of the Cross within it, enclosed in a silver case. She sent another portion to her son Constantine, who kept it within his own statue for the protection of the city. Out of reverence for the Crucified One, Constantine abolished crucifixion as a form of execution throughout the empire.

From Helena’s discovery, the feast of the Cross took shape. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrated on September 14, recalls not only the dedication of Constantine’s basilicas over Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre, but also Constantine’s own vision of the Cross before battle, the solemn veneration of the relic in Jerusalem, and the Cross’s triumphant return in 628 after it was recovered from Persian captivity. In this way, history, liturgy, and devotion intertwine to keep alive the memory of the Cross as both a historical object and a living symbol of salvation.

Yet despite such rich tradition, questions persist: if the True Cross of Christ was indeed discovered, where is it now, and why is there so much ambiguity surrounding it? Over the centuries, wars, invasions, and looting scattered relics of the Cross across the Christian world. So many churches claimed to possess fragments that skeptics joked there was “enough wood to build a ship.” Some relics were undoubtedly authentic, others less so. The Church teaches that the real significance lies not in the material wood, but in what the Cross represents, the saving Passion of Christ and the love of God revealed in it.

For believers, then, the Cross is not merely a relic of the past but a mystery that touches the heart. St. Paul made this personal when he declared, “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). St. John, in his Gospel, sees the Cross not simply as a pathway to glory but as glory itself. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified… And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:23, 32). For John, the Cross is the crown, the moment of Christ’s exaltation, not just a prelude to it.

The Cross of Christ is not merely a symbol of suffering but the personal sign of God’s redeeming love. It invites every believer to take up their own crosses with courage, uniting struggles to Christ’s, and it assures them that every trial can be transformed into life through the Resurrection. To carry or make the Sign of the Cross is to proclaim: “I belong to Christ, who has conquered sin and death for me.”

In the end, it is through a deeper understanding of the Cross that we stop being cross about our burdens, and instead find strength to cross over into new life. The Cross, whether sung in hymns, remembered in history, or expressed in diverse symbols, remains the heart of Christian faith, the meeting point of suffering and love, death and victory, earth and heaven.

(Fr. Walter D’Souza, a priest of the Archdiocese of Bombay, holds a doctorate in Biblical Theology and currently teaches Scripture at St. Pius Seminary, Mumbai.)