Forgive me the sinner.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Thy Cross, O Lord, is holy, and brings healing to those who are in sickness through their sins” (Matins, Cross, Canticle 3 Sessional Hymn, Tone 6).
At the mid-point of this most holy season of the Great Fast stands the Cross of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ – without equal and without apology – looming over us and all-embracing. St. Cyril of Jerusalem in his catechetical lectures notes, “The catholic Church glories in every deed of Christ. Her supreme glory, however, is the Cross . . . the Cross is the crown of victory!” The Cross, therefore, and the One crucified thereon in the flesh, is at the very heart of this season of repentance and transformation. In fact, it is the heart and soul of the Christian life – of Baptism, Chrismation, and the Eucharist – or said another way, it is our purification, illumination, and union with God – each phase or stage corresponding to each of the Mysteries I have mentioned: Baptism is our purification or purgation, Chrismation is our illumination or enlightenment, and the Eucharist is our real union with God wherein we partake of the divine nature (2 Pe. 1:4). By the wood of the Cross; by bread and wine; by water and oil . . . . . .
The Cross, then, beloved, is the summation of the entirety of Christian theology and spirituality, and it is the chief icon of our salvation because it is the chief icon of the essence of divine love. “’For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life’” (Jn. 3:15, 16, 17). The Cross is the oasis in the midst of our Lenten desert, with its 12 springs and 70 palm trees (Ex. 15:27; Nm. 33:9), refreshing and reinvigorating all who are hungering and thirsting for the deeper life in God and His holiness. “’Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled’” (Beatitudes). And, again, “’If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water,’” says our Lord (Jn. 4:10, 13-14; 7:37-38). And, again, He declares, “’I AM the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst’” (Jn. 6:35).
For all of this to be ours, we must partake of and participate in the crucified Holy One of God. To use His holy words from today, all who desire Him and what He offers, must learn to deny themselves, take up their Cross, and follow His Way, His Truth, His Life, which is to say, we must be conformed, ever and again, to the image of the crucified Son of God (Rm. 8:29). This is what St. Paul calls elsewhere “the new man . . . created according to [the image of] God [Who created him], in righteousness and true holiness” (Ep. 4:24; Co. 3:10). “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Ga. 2:20). By the Cross, “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Ga. 6:14).
This, beloved, is our glory! That’s what Sacred Scripture says. This is all, indeed, good news! Ironically, however, the Cross – the crucifixion it beckons us all to – is both sorrow and consolation. The Disciples knew that, at least the sorrow of being fixed to a cross. The cross was Rome’s death penalty publicly executed. Crosses with thieves and robbers and murderers and political rebels, among others, were strategically placed about the Roman Empire in order to deter any and all wannabes, that this, too, would be their final lot if they chose that sort of life. They were flogged, stripped naked and nailed to them. By all available accounts, crucifixion was a most unimaginably excruciating death by total physical exhaustion and slow asphyxiation.
And, the Disciples knew that. So, they got what Jesus was telling them, even before their Lord and Master Himself was crucified. They got the image of the Cross with its pain and suffering and sorrow – and its inescapable death! This is perhaps why Peter recoiled at the words of our Lord just before today’s Gospel lection. Foretelling His sufferings and death at the hands of Israel’s spiritual leaders soon to be His lot, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him, says the Evangelist. It was, then, Jesus turned to His lovable but impetuous Disciple and rebuked him, saying, “’Get behind Me, Satan! For you [Peter] are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men’” (Mk. 8:32-33). It was, then, that Jesus offered to them – and to all who desire to come after Him – the Cross and all that it entails as His Way, His Truth, His Life.
We must be willing to embrace this so that we might be embraced by Him. As I said earlier, the Cross has its sorrow, yes, but it also has its consolation for those willing to endure and persevere with Jesus. “We venerate Thy Cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection, . . . For, behold!, through the Cross joy has come into all the world” (Post-Communion Troparia). As we contemplate the Cross and gaze upon the Holy One of God affixed by nails to its branches, we are invariably laid bare, exposed, stripped naked – all so that we might be clothed with the grace of the Cross and the One crucified thereon, enveloped by the love of God poured out and received in the chalice, so that we might be truly human beings, now deified. This is the joy and the consolation of the Cross. Through the sorrow of denying ourselves and dying with Christ joy has come into our lives! It “brings healing to those who are in sickness through their sins” (Sunday of the Cross Matins, Canticle 3 Sessional Hymn, Tone 6).
No one in their right mind would ever dare say that the Cross – that crucifixion – is easy work. It is far from easy, but it is necessary for our salvation. The Fathers teach us that the coming of God into our midst, wearing the flesh of His own creature, was to make us truly human again – men and women created in the divine image, having the capacity for the divine nature, to be like God – to restore to us that which was damaged and lost to us in the Great Fall of Adam and Eve. In that Fall, we became just like wild beasts, enslaved to our appetites and passions, made capable of the most horrific things, unnatural except to fallen creatures, thus revealing the travesty of sin and its power and hold over us. It took the unimaginable and inconceivable great act of God in Christ on the Cross to conquer the equally unimaginable and inconceivable great act of the Fall that infiltrated not only humanity, but all of creation with its corruption (Rm. 8:18-22). Now, however, through the Cross all of creation rejoices! All of creation finds its liberation through the crucifixion of our most holy and loved Creator turned Redeemer.
On this day, the Cross looms before us as both sign and seal of our deliverance. But, what does it mean to “take up the Cross,” to carry our cross, and follow Jesus? Oftentimes, in our culture, the Cross our Lord bids us to take up and carry is associated with aches and pains we all must experience to one degree or another. In part, there is truth in that. But the Cross would be found, not so much in those common things, but rather in how we bear them, how we allow them to mold us more and more into the cruciform image of the Son of God. Are we allowing them to make us more patient as we await God’s mercies or do we wallow in self-pity? Are we more resolved to follow Jesus wherever He leads, more committed and devoted to the Faith of the Son of God, more thankful for God’s little graces poured out, unworthy though we be?
The Cross, however, is not to be limited merely to our aches and pains, but is found – maybe even moreso – in all those times when we come to a crossroads where we have a choice to make: to follow Jesus or to deny Him which has dire consequences should we deny Him, He says. The Cross is found in those crossroad moments when we are faced with showing mercy or not showing mercy; to have compassion or not to have compassion; to forgive another their sin against us or to cling to our entitlement for “justice” because we have been offended. The Cross is found when we choose to give of ourselves, our time, our talents, and our treasures to God and His Church when we’d really rather keep them for ourselves. But, like the widow and her famous last two mites (Mk. 12:41-44; Lk. 21:1-4) or the woman who spent an exorbitant amount – perhaps a year’s worth of wages – on ointment just to wash Jesus’ feet (Mt. 26:6-13; Mk. 14:3-9; Jn. 12:1-8), we gladly offer them up to God as a fragrant sacrifice of worship, entrusting ourselves to Him, not regretting the sacrifice. These acts of self-denial and self-sacrifice for Him have been memorialized by our Lord as a following after Him, preserved for our salvation in the Holy Tradition for us to emulate because they show us the Cross. The Cross is found in our giving God thanks when it would be way easier to moan and complain. The Cross is present when we are faced with turning the cheek or not to turn it. It is present when we are tempted to offer our unsolicited opinions (because we think highly of ourselves) instead of remaining still and silent until invited to speak. The Cross is present when we must decide: do I stay home and indulge my sloth or do I attend the services of God’s House designed to save and sanctify my soul? The Cross looms when our anger is stirred and we are sorely tempted to give someone a piece of our mind instead of holding our tongue and committing them to God.
We could easily go on, beloved, but you get the picture. The Cross is truly “everywhere present and fills all things” if we are spiritually attuned to it and to our crucified Lord. If we truly yearn to come after our Lord, He will supply abundant opportunities for us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. In fact, we won’t have to look far! The Cross is as close as our neighbor.
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
PROPERS:
Hb. 4:14-5:6
Mk. 8:34-9:1