Chris Cardone, OP at his installation as Archbishop of Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ and all people of good will throughout the Solomon Islands, today the Church celebrates and we anticipate liturgically, the Feast of the Exultation of the Cross, September 14th on the liturgical calendar. It is an ancient feast that goes back to the year when the mother of Emperor Constantine: St.
For our Solomon Islands, the cross is an important God-centered and historical sign, too. In the year , the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana arrived in our islands. At almost every new place the Spanish discovered, they would plant a large wooden cross and claim that place for Christ! In Solomon Islands we have more than 70 local languages.
But it reminds us of the very roots of all Christian churches in Solomon Islands that go back to the planting of the cross here years ago! In pagan Roman times the cross was the means of execution for criminals. But St. John Chapter 3, says the Son of Man- Jesus Christ, must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life! Since that time, God works through people who become His hands and heart, His feet and His mouth.
Who were the hands and feet and mouth of the Holy Spirit? The first Catholic missionaries were the Marist fathers, brothers and sisters. But in Santa Isabel, our first bishop was martyred. The early Marists sacrificed greatly, struggled valiantly, but eventually departed from Solomon Islands after less than ten years. Forty-three years later, French Marist Prefect Apostolic Julian Vidal, young Marists and catechists from Fiji returned with renewed apostolic enthusiasm to plant again the cross, the tree of life in Solomon Islands.
