Catholic Mass Readings and Reflection September 14, 2026
Monday – Exaltation of the Holy Cross
14th September 2026 (Monday)
Psalter: Proper
Here are the Catholic Mass readings and a daily Gospel reflection for Monday, September 14, 2026, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. In the desert a bronze serpent is lifted up for healing, Paul sings of Christ who emptied Himself, and Jesus says He too must be lifted up.
Catholic Mass Readings
Readings of the Day
First Reading: Numbers 21:4b-9
In those days: The people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Psalm 78:1BC-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38 R. (see 7b)
R/. Never forget the deeds of the Lord!
Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11
Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel Acclamation
V/. Alleluia
R/. Alleluia
V/. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your Cross you have redeemed the world.
R/. Alleluia
Gospel: John 3:13-17
At that time: Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Monday – Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Daily Gospel Reflection
Main Point: God’s cure in the desert was strange. The people dying of snakebite had to look at a bronze snake on a pole. To be healed, they had to look straight at an image of the very thing destroying them.
1. The people are dying in the desert. Snakes have come among them, and the bites are fatal, and the camp is full of the dying. God’s remedy makes no obvious sense. Make a bronze serpent, He tells Moses, lift it on a pole, and whoever looks at it will live.
2. Think about what that asked of a dying man. To be saved, he had to turn his eyes toward the very shape of what was killing him. Not away from it. Toward it. Look at the serpent, and live.
3. Jesus takes that ancient scene and says it was about Him. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The pole becomes the Cross. And what hangs on it is the image of what is killing us, our sin, our death, gathered into His own body.
4. This is why we do a strange thing today. We take an instrument of torture, the cross, the electric chair of the ancient world, and we call it holy. We lift it high in gold above our altars. The world would hide such a thing. We exalt it, because on it our death was put to death.
5. And notice what healing requires of us, then and now. We have to look. Not away from the Cross, not around it, but straight at it, at what our sin cost and what His love paid. Many of us would rather not. It is easier to keep our eyes on brighter things.
6. Paul shows us what we see when we do look. Christ did not cling to His equality with God. He emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient even to death on a cross. The One lifted up is God, come all the way down to the lowest place, for us.
7. So the cure has not changed since the desert. Lift up your eyes to the One lifted up. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, not to condemn it, but to save it. The Cross is not there to frighten us. It is there so that, looking at it, we live.
My Practice: Today, do not look away from a crucifix. Rest your eyes on it for one honest minute, on what your sin cost and what His love paid, and let the God who was lifted up for you heal what is killing you.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, in the desert You taught a dying people to look at the very thing that was killing them, and to live. On the Cross You became that for us, lifting our sin and death into Your own body so that we might be healed by looking at You. Give us the courage not to turn away. Fix our eyes on the Cross, where You emptied Yourself for love of us and came down to the lowest place. We do not exalt it because we love pain, but because on it our death was defeated. Save us, Lord, who look to You lifted up. Amen.
Question to Reflect Today
- What do you tend to look away from when you consider the Cross, and could you look at a crucifix honestly today, and let it heal you rather than frighten you?
Thank You 🙏🙏🙏
Tags: Daily Mass Reflection, Feast, Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Catholic Mass Readings, Gospel of John, September 2026
