On 14 September 335 a relic of the cross, found by St Helena, was venerated by the people in Jerusalem. The cross, which was used as as an instrument of cruel and humiliating punishment, became a symbol of the victory of God’s love for his people and his triumph over evil. “Yes, God so loved the world so much that he gave his only Son..." Looking at the cross, we must feel a profound sense of the ugliness of sin, which was the cause of such suffering to Jesus. He used the analogy of the bronze serpent in the desert, whose bite caused many deaths, to show the healing power of his death. It must be understood that suffering is not good in itself but - like Christ’s sacrifice - it can have a redemptive power, bringing good out of evil.
Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, was a pharisee, a learned man and a member of the Sanhedrin. Unlike his confreres, however, he realised that he had something to learn from Jesus. John uses his dialogue with the Lord to set out some of the most beautiful teaching of the New Testament. Nicodemus had no idea where his visit would lead. He would travel from the darkness of his timidity to the light of courage, when he came to take part in the burial of the Lord. “Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to Heaven” (Rose of Lima).