I once performed an experiment in which I logged onto one of the internet mapping sites and tried to map out directions from “Detroit, MI” to “Heaven.” 

The list of possible destinations the website suggested were “Truck Heaven” in Walled Lake, “Heaven’s Day Care” in Detroit, and “Sweets from Heaven” in Novi (I’ve got to try that one). There was no option suggested for the true Heaven, the place of eternal and perfect light, joy, love and peace where those who have died and were faithful during their earthly lives spend eternity being filled with God’s love. 

Maybe it’s because they only have directions for driving, walking and mass transit.

The truth is that there is no merely human way we can travel to Heaven. As we learned in Star Trek IV, The Final Frontier, not even a spaceship can take us to the place where God lives! As you may remember, Captain Kirk was bitterly disappointed to find a violent alien where the Enterprise crew thought they might find the domain of God.

We want to go to Heaven, but we don’t always think enough about how we really get there. ... Many grieving people seem to presume their loved ones are automatically in Heaven. ... This week’s feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross reminds us that the one and only, non-negotiable way to Heaven takes us right to the Cross of Jesus Christ, the Son of God Who has died out of love for us

We want to go to Heaven, but we don’t always think enough about how we really get there. Especially when someone we love dies, we want that person to go to Heaven. But many grieving people seem to presume their loved ones are automatically in Heaven. Or even if they don’t see Heaven as automatic, they still seem to think it’s because of the goodness of the deceased that he or she should be with God.

This week’s feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross reminds us that the one and only, non-negotiable way to Heaven takes us right to the Cross of Jesus Christ, the Son of God Who has died out of love for us: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Our goodness — which is still a gift from God — helps us go to the Cross, to stay near the Cross, to pick up our own crosses and follow Jesus, but we must never forget that only Jesus makes possible our going to Heaven: “Jesus said to Nicodemus: ‘No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man’” (John 3:13).

Our sins have created a chasm between us and God. Only God can bridge this chasm, and He has done it! We can think of the vertical beam of the Cross as a bridge between heaven and earth, while the horizontal beam stretches out to all of humanity — even all of creation — drawing into the embrace of God’s saving love all who will put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Since I have already gotten carried away with pop culture references, I’ll throw in a couple more: the only possibility of climbing a “Stairway to Heaven,” the only way to even get close enough to start “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” is to get close to the Cross of Jesus Christ, to look upon the Cross the same way the Israelites looked upon the serpent Moses raised up in the desert, when they had been bitten and poisoned by the saraph serpents (Numbers 21).

The Israelites looked with the intense hope of those who know they are about to die if something really good doesn’t happen, something utterly beyond their own power. That is exactly how we need to think of the Cross of Jesus. By God’s power, it is the source not of death, but of life.

A quick and simple way to apply this truth to our lives is to make sure that we place crucifixes in our homes where we can see them frequently throughout the day. The crucifix should have a central place in any Catholic home, and we should look upon the crucified Lord Jesus and remember what He has done to save us, and the life He promises in dying for us.

We have already been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. At every celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass, we look together upon the crucified and risen Jesus, the Source of our life and salvation, in the Holy Eucharist. He is our way, the way, to Heaven. When we say “amen” to the Body and Blood of Christ, by that word we ought to pledge our lives to Him Who comes to save our lives, and to share His life with us forever.

Fr. Charles Fox is a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit currently assigned to the theology faculty of Sacred Heart Major Seminary. He is also a weekend associate pastor at St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in Shelby Township and chaplain and a board member of St. Paul Evangelization Institute, headquartered in Warren.