The Archdiocese of Cape Town celebrated a Jubilee Mass – as Pilgrims of Hope – at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, Lansdowne on Sunday 14 September, Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It was a joyful celebration, highlighted by beautiful singing and liturgical dance. In his thought provoking homily, Bishop Sylvester David OMI called us, as pilgrims and as an archdiocese, to action. Here is the text of his homily below.
The Cross and the Jubilee: A Meeting Place of Mercy and Freedom
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear fellow pilgrims of hope;
As we gather today, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we do so with hearts made even more joyful by the spirit of this Extraordinary Jubilee Year 2025, a year Pope Francis called a “Jubilee of Hope.” We come together as the Church in Cape Town; young and old, rich and poor, wounded and healed; standing at the foot of the Cross and before the open gates of mercy as indicated by the celebration of a Jubilee.
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus speaks of being “lifted up” (Jn 3:14), echoing that mysterious scene from Numbers 21, when Moses lifted up a bronze serpent in the wilderness so that the people, suffering from the sting of death, might look upon it and live. To human eyes, the Cross was a place of utter defeat, a tool of Roman torture and shame. Yet Jesus, through his patient endurance and absolute trust in God, transformed it into the tree of life, the gate of victory, and the throne of mercy. As St. Paul tells us in Phil 2, Jesus “humbled himself, becoming obedient to death; even death on a Cross. Therefore God highly exalted him.” (Phil 2:8-9). The Cross teaches us that God’s power is most perfectly revealed not in domination, but in sacrifice; not in force, but in forgiveness.
In a city like ours, where so many still carry crosses of poverty, violence, inequality, and racial division; the message of the Cross is this: God is not far from our suffering. He has entered into it, and embraced it. He will transform it.
The Jubilee Year has its roots in the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus 25, where every 50th year was declared a sacred time of release from debt, freedom for slaves, and the restoration of land. It was a radical reminder that everything belongs to God, and that God’s people must live in mercy, justice, and solidarity. Now, in this 2025 Jubilee, Pope Francis invited us to live out this hopeful renewal. The Cross is the centre of that renewal. Because only through the Cross can true reconciliation and freedom take place.
How many in our communities, perhaps even in our own families, are longing for a new beginning?
• A young man shackled by addiction.
• A woman carrying the burden of abortion or abuse.
• An elderly person feeling forgotten in our fast-paced world.
• A township robbed of opportunity, yet still rich in spirit.
To all of these, the Cross says: There is hope. There is healing. There is freedom. Here in the Archdiocese of Cape Town, the Cross stands over Table Mountain, not just as a symbol, but as a living invitation.
• To be a Church of the Poor, where no one is excluded.
• To be a Church of Reconciliation, where race and history no longer divide.
• To be a Church of Mercy, where confession is a doorway, not a judgment.
• To be a Church of Witness, lifting high the Cross; not in pride, but in love.
Jubilee is not just a year on the calendar; it is a call to action. And the Cross is not just a historical event frozen into more than two millennia of Christian existence; it is a present reality. Jesus is still being crucified today, in the hungry, in the abused, in the migrants and in the lonely. But He is also still being raised; through acts of mercy, through justice pursued, and through every “yes” we give to God.
Jesus said: “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.”
(Jn 3:14-15). The narratives of the first reading from the Book of Numbers and also from the Gospel passage for today are most illuminating. They speak of the way in which God heals his people. The wilderness generation in the Book of Numbers is wandering in the desert and complaining that they are being stung by serpents. God’s answer is for them to make an image of what is causing them pain and to look at it so that they can be healed – and indeed all who looked at the bronze serpent were healed. Jesus uses this example when he gives Nicodemus his catechism lesson on baptism in Jn 3. What does all this mean for us? Well, God’s people (namely you & I) are still wandering around in the wilderness and we complain. But the serpents that sting us are not out in the desert sands – they are inside of us (in our guilt, our self pity, our complexes, our jealousies, our self absorption and our selfishness.). The wilderness is very often of our own making though sometimes it is thrust upon us through illness, depression, loss of loved ones, violence, and abuse. Whatever the case, we complain and God’s answer is the same as the answer he gave to the wilderness generation: ‘take what is causing you pain, hold it up and look at it, and you will be healed’. When we face our demons like that we can truly be free and then we can experience the exaltation of the cross in our own lives.
Today, as we look upon the Cross, let us not turn away. Let us not be indifferent. Let us not grow cold. Instead, let us look… and live. Let us look upon His wounds… and find healing. Let us look upon His mercy… and offer forgiveness to those who have wounded us. Let us look upon His poverty… and open our hands to give generously, because he is still with the poor and the dispossessed.
This is the Cross that Cape Town needs. This is the Cross the world is waiting for. As we go forth from this Jubilee Mass, let us be a people marked by the Cross; not ashamed of it, not afraid of it; but exalted by it. Let the Cross be our banner, our bridge, and our beacon. For in the Cross, death has been defeated, in the Cross, hope has been restored, and through the Cross, we have become a Jubilee people; free, forgiven, and sent to heal the world. “We adore you O Christ and we praise you because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the World”.
