(Theological commentary on the feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Holy Cross)
The great feast of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross is a day of joy and sorrow for us believers. A day of joy, because through the death on the cross of our Redeemer Christ we received deliverance from the terrible bonds of the devil, the slavery of sin and the bitter death. A day of sorrow, because it brings to our remembrance the murder of the deity, the death on the cross of Christ, the greatest crime of all times, the ultimate condemnation of our fall and at the same time the need for our salvation from God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was delivered "cross hair", as "offender" of the Law, with the provisions of the Law, ""that he made himself the Son of God" (John 10,7:XNUMX). "We have a law, and according to our law he must die," the Jews demanded from the Roman authorities. The Lawgiver was condemned by His own Law and put to death by its decrees! He died (physically) on the cross as "cursed", because anyone who died by the death of the cross was considered cursed (Deut.21,22; Gal.3,13).
But, in the general sense of the curse, every human being was cursed, as a transgressor of God's commandment (Gen. 3,6:XNUMX) and subject to death, according to God's warning to the first created beings: "In the day you eat of it, you will surely die" (Gen. 2,17:XNUMX). But Christ came into the world to free man from the original curse and to remove its tragic consequences, which was death. Our Savior "He redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Gal. 3,13:XNUMX), to abolish the curse of the human race. With His death, He transformed the curse into a blessing and the deadly means of crucifixion, the cross, into a source of sanctification and redemption. Divine love prevailed over human wickedness and did not act vengefully. Man gave pain and death to God and He returned love! The cross, from a cursed means of killing criminals, became the symbol of love and sacrifice. It became the symbol of reconciliation, between God and man and between people. It no longer ceased to be intertwined with death, to cause death to those who ascended to it, and it became the source of life and immortality!
The Holy Cross is defined as the "Government of our Church"We chant on the holy day: “Save, O Lord, Your people and bless Your inheritance… through Your Cross, a government”But what is the government of the Cross and how is it experienced in the lives of believers? Through love! Christ suffered and died on the Cross, because of His immeasurable love for fallen man (John 3,16:XNUMX), revealing its cruciform character. Showing us that our own love, that is, our loving relationship with our fellow men, should also be cruciform. It should be the result of sacrifice and "emptying" from every selfish mood and situation of ours. Love without the element of the Cross does not exist. Love separate from the Cross, without personal "crucifixion" is false and selfish. True love is realized and manifested only through "emptying", "until death, even death on a cross"» (Phil. 2,8:XNUMX). The model of this love is "divine emptiness", the Incarnation of God, the "emptying" of divine glory and the "dressing in the form of a slave", to achieve our salvation. We cannot claim that "We have love", if not "crucify" ourselves, that is, if we don't "kill" our ego, the
our individual will, if we do not detach ourselves from our individualistic entrenchment and self-sufficiency.
Christ taught us that if we want to save our soul, we must lose it, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." (Mark 8,34:XNUMX). A strange and incomprehensible word for the "world". Here the word soul means life, not biological life, but the reason for our existence, our destiny. The Lord commands us with the strange and incomprehensible for the "world" for this reason, to "lose" voluntarily our selfish entrenchment and self-sufficiency, to eliminate this demonic symptom in our fallen nature, which inevitably leads us to loss, to spiritual death. As long as we persist in this unnatural and intrusive state, we will walk towards decay and death. The antidote to our individual death is the mortification of our ego, that is, the cruciform way of our life, the notch of our individual will, our unhooking from our selfish entrenchment.
Christ taught love and mutual service as the fundamental distinguishing mark of His believers with the "world", which is based on our personal "crucifixion", that is, of "emptying" of our ego, of our humiliation. Let us note that the Christian concept of love is not simply the fulfillment of a duty, the manifestation of humanitarian interest, the satisfaction of an emotion (e.g. compassion, sadness, etc.), but a sacrificial disposition, attitude and way of life. Christ is clear: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your minister, and whoever wants to be first among you must be slave of all." (Mark 9,42:44-XNUMX). Practical love is a way of life and state.
Christians are called to prove their authenticity through the ministry of their brothers and sisters. To feel their fellow human beings as "members of one body", since “For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all made to drink into one Spirit. And the body is not one member, but many.” (12,12 Cor.14:XNUMX-XNUMX). To suffer in their suffering and to rejoice in their joy. This is the "community of saints"The "new building" (5,17 Cor. XNUMX:XNUMX), God's new world, founded on personal "crucifixion" of each and all together. This is the society of love. This is the government of the Cross!
The Cross of Christ is now the unifying force of humanity. If the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Eden (Gen. 3) became a messenger of evil and enmity of the human race, the wood of the Cross became a sign of the reunification of people in the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The two crossed pieces of wood of the Cross symbolize the double union of people with God (vertical wood) and the union of people among themselves (transverse wood). Also, the vertical wood depicts the all-holy Body of Christ and the transverse wood represents the two open arms of our Crucified Redeemer, which embrace all of humanity. The unifying force of the Cross of Christ fraternizes people, creating the community of love, brotherhood, justice and peace.
Our Church is walking the two thousand year journey of its history "crosswise". There is no time when the Church has lost its cross-resurrectional character, because that would divert Her saving work.
"world" the "crucifies" and She reveals the triumph of Her cross, proving that, despite the warfare against Her by the opposing forces, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16.18:XNUMX), conquering through the Cross. This is also the greatest miracle in history.
The faithful throughout the centuries have walked the path of the cross, sacrificially, and lovingly. It is historically proven that the Church has been the catalyst "sorcery", which "kneaded" the tragic pre-Christian world, taming its inhuman customs, changing its laws, transforming its mentality. The Church appeared and was founded as a heavenly oasis in the desert of the pre-Christian world, which was Satan's theater, where the constant tragedy of man was played out. For the first time, the other person was considered a brother, as a value, as an image of God. All the insurmountable barriers between people were demolished, so that now, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal.3,28:XNUMX). "For if, when we were enemies, we were conquered by the death of his Son, much more, having been conquered, we shall be saved by his life." (Rom.5,8:10-XNUMX)!
In the early Christian communities, absolute equality and justice were first applied, based on love, in such a way that “The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them said that any of the possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. … and great grace was upon them all. For there was no needy person among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, they brought the prices of the things they sold and laid them at the apostles’ feet. And distribution was made to each as anyone had need.” (Acts 4,32:35-XNUMX). It is understandable that in order for someone rich, or noble, to join this society, they had to "crucified", to "empty" from every individual and selfish entrenchment. To sacrifice his property, to humble himself, to make himself equal to the slave and his unknown brother in Christ. To make up for the lack of the needy with his own surplus. To eat of the common food in the "loves". To embrace and break the ragged, to serve the sick, to protect the widow and the orphan, to shelter the homeless, to comfort and support the hurting, to give hope to the hopeless. And the most wonderful: love extends even to enemies: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you… that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5,44:45-XNUMX)! No one is left outside the love of Christ! This is the practical love. "crucifixion"!
The two thousand year history of our Church is an uninterrupted testimony, in the spiritually arid world, of its cruciform constitution. There is no era that was not marked by its sacrificial offering to man, society and humanity. It was she who first created social welfare and volunteerism. She invented, organized and operated charitable institutions, public hospitals, orphanages, nursing homes, housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, supporting the weak. The admiration of even pagans towards Christians is well known: "See how Christians love each other"! And most importantly: She opposed the pre-Christian world, demonstrating and denouncing its demonic possession, its satanic policies, its horrible way of life! Christianity was the greatest and most catalytic revolution in history, paying the price of persecutions and rivers of blood!
In the difficult early Christian years of persecution, in Byzantium, where society was Christianizing, in Frankish rule, in Turkish rule, in the horrific atheistic regimes of the last century, the crusading state of the Church was always present, serving man, as an image of God and giving impetus to the continuation of the course of the world. This, and only this, "grafted" the social structures of the world and gave them a certain efficiency. There are no noble and beneficial principles in them that do not have a Christian origin!
In our difficult days, our Church continues to live by the rule of the Cross. She serves man, without any discrimination, as a loving mother, silently and often criticized by opposing forces, thus glorifying God and showing the world, stubbornly persisting in its fall, the long-desired and "elusive" for him, a solution to the social problem, which is none other than the State of the Cross.
On the occasion of the celebration of the Universal Exaltation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross, let us reflect on the inexhaustible blessings that flow from it. Let us realize that there are not many ways out of the tragedy of the fallen and demon-possessed world (5,19 John XNUMX:XNUMX), but only one, Jesus Christ. That there are not many sources of sanctification, except that of Holy Cross, who sanctifies us through our mystical organic participation in our Church. How all the tested systems of the world have proven to be completely ineffective in solving the tragic diachronic social problems, except for one: The System of the Cross, the System of the Cross in our Church, our personal and collective "crucifixion" as, through her, "Let us live justice" (2,21 Peter XNUMX:XNUMX).
photo by kapeha, https://pixabay.com
