The feast keeps two moments: the finding of the true Cross in Jerusalem in the fourth century, and its solemn lifting-up before the people. But its meaning runs deeper than history. On this day the Church exalts the Cross itself, the instrument of a shameful death transformed, by Christ, into the tree of life and the sign of victory.
The paradox is the whole of the Gospel in one image. What was made for torture becomes the throne of the King; what the world used to destroy Him becomes the means by which He destroys death. The Church does not hide the Cross or soften it; she lifts it high and bows before it, singing “Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify.”
The Exaltation is kept as a strict fast day, even though it is a feast, because it is the day of the Cross. It falls on September 14, near the beginning of the church year, setting the whole year under the sign of Christ crucified and risen.