By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Homily by Archbishop Thomas Wenski at Saint Helen Catholic Parish in Fort Lauderdale, on Aug. 18, 2025, for the feast of Saint Helen.
Saint Helen lived in the early 4th century; her husband became a Roman emperor; but first he divorced her to marry a more politically connected woman. But Helen’s son eventually took his father’s place and apparently had been well brought up by his mother who was a Christian.
It was Helen’s son, Constantine, who finally brought an end to the persecutions of the early Christians, a persecution that lasted, with varying degrees of intensity, more than 200 years. Constantine, through the Edict of Milan, established religious tolerance.
Jodi a, se fete n ap fete patwon pawas nou, Sentelen. L al nan Tè Sent pou l chache kote kwa kote yo te kloure Jezi te ye. L tal fè sa paske li te byen konprann yon lafwa san lakwa pa ka sove. Konsa,li tal cheche dekouvri kote kwa a te ye a, paske li te vle pou legliz pa janm bliye wòl kwa jwe nan delivrans nou. Wout laglwa leve byen vivan pase pa chemen lakwa.Santa Helena, patrona de esta parroquia, unos siglos después de la muerte y resurrección de Jesucristo, viajó desde Roma a Jerusalén en busca de la cruz en la que Jesús fue clavado. Esa devoción de Santa Helena hacia la cruz de Jesucristo nos ayuda a comprender que una fe sin la cruz no puede salvar. El camino hacia la Gloria pasa por el sendero de la cruz.
Tradition says that Helen, encouraged by her son, set off to the Holy Land to find the true cross of Jesus Christ. She did find a site where people told her the cross was buried, and she did have excavated three crosses and identified which one was presumed to be the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Many people today might be a bit skeptical and say how she could have found the cross of Jesus 200 years after the event!
We do live in a skeptical time; yet today, archeologists unearth ruins and find in these ruins artefacts that are thousands of years old. So, who’s to say that St. Helen didn’t find the cross on which Jesus hung?
Jesus preached good news, but at the center of the good news is the Cross. He suffered and died for us that we might have life, and life to the full. Jesus of course tells us: love one another – but at the Last Supper when he washed the disciples’ feet and gave us the Holy Eucharist, he says: Love one another as I have loved you. What does that mean? To find out, we can look at the cross.
There on the cross, we learn that love, God’s love, a love that is strong like fire is a love that is self-sacrificing, that is self-giving. Jesus came to do his Father’s will, and he let nothing stop him. He was committed to the very end, dying on the cross. And love is commitment. Love is not a sugary, sweet emotion or sentiment, it is a commitment to the very end. A commitment that demands that we endure everything as we seek to love as Jesus loved; it is a commitment that even demands that we forgive everything as Jesus did on the cross. “Father, forgive them they do not know what they do.
”Mete difè renmen Bondye nan kè n menm jan Sentelen te fè, se konsa pawas la ap tounen yon flanmbo kap bay limyè ak chalè pou n renouvle fas tè a.
Que el fuego del Amor Divino ilumine nuestros corazones – para que llevando la cruz de Cristo podamos renovar esta tierra.
When we see a statue of St. Helen, we always see her holding the cross because the road to true glory is not found through wealth or fame, or power and influence but rather through the way of the cross. Her still pagan son Constantine once saw in a vision on the eve of the Battle of Milan a cross lighting up the sky with the words: In hoc signo vinces: In this sign you will conquer.
May the sign of the cross bring us victory over the evil one and lead us into Eternal Life.
