On the Procession of the Honorable Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord (1)
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
(Delivered on August 1, 1962)
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
(Delivered on August 1, 1962)
The Cross is the preserver of the whole universe,
the Cross is the beauty of the Church,
the Cross is the confirmation of the faithful,
the Cross is the glory of angels and the scourge of demons
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church glorifies the power of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, and at the same time remembers the honorable sufferings that our Lord Jesus Christ endured on the Cross. The nearest reason for the event now being celebrated was the miraculous signs that appeared from the Wood of the Life-Giving Cross to the inhabitants of Constantinople.
In ancient times, a severe pestilence broke out in the capital of the Greek state, Constantinople, which claimed many human lives. After, at the request of the residents of the city, the Wood of the Holy Cross was carried through the streets of the capital for fifteen days with prayers and sprinkling of buildings and houses with holy water, the destructive disease stopped, and all Christians brought their deepest gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Subsequently, this miracle was also joined by another significant event, namely: the Orthodox Greek Emperor Manuel, with the presentation of the icons of the Savior and the Mother of God to the troops, won a victory over the Saracens, and the Orthodox Russian prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, at the same time, with the presentation of the icons of the Savior and the Mother of God, won the victory over the Volga Bulgarians. Evidence that these victories were won by supernatural power was the heavenly radiance emanating from the icons and illuminating the people who were there. In memory of this remarkable event, the Orthodox Greek and Russian Churches established that the feast of the carrying out of the Cross and of the All-Merciful Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos should be added to the feasts in remembrance of the heavenly mercies bestowed on both Orthodox countries.
But while now glorifying the power of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, the Church at the same time remembers the sufferings of Christ endured by Him on the Cross. In the Gospel set for today, the narrative of the last hours and minutes of the earthly life of the Son of God is set forth. He, the sinless One, the Most Holy of Holies, having taken the form of a servant, humiliated, insulted by the crowd of fierce enemies that roared around Him, marches to trial before Pilate, a pagan, a sinner. The scribes, the elders and all the people with incomprehensible hatred demand from the ruler death for the Immortal, a shameful death: "Crucify, crucify Him!" (John 19:6) they shout.
Pilate, a pagan, who did not know the divinely revealed teaching, moved by a sense of justice, hesitated, wanted to save Him, saying to the Jews: "Take Him and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him" (John 19:6). But their threat to accuse him before Caesar forces Pilate to deliver the Lord into the hands of His enemies. And after many new humiliations and insults, the innocent Sufferer, acquitted at Pilate's trial, ascends to Golgotha, is nailed to the Cross and gives up His spirit, hanging in the midst of two thieves on a tree. What humiliation, what a terrible death the Lord endured at this time! And the question arises: why was such a terrible sacrifice required?
"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5), answers the holy prophet Isaiah. The whole human race was in sin. By the time of the Savior's coming, people had forgotten God; even those Jews who were entrusted with the preservation of the divinely revealed teaching had forgotten His Divine Law and the Prophets. All had sinned, all had transgressed the commandments of God, and therefore all had angered God and deserved eternal damnation and death. God is all-good and all-merciful, but He is also infinitely just. Divine truth was indignant at human untruth, at human sins. It was necessary to satisfy this holy Truth. Of the people infected with sin, no one could take upon himself the feat of redemption of the human race, because the sins were extremely great, and in terms of the gravity of the sins, the sacrifice had to be the greatest. And it was this highest and holiest sacrifice that the Son of God made. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). By the Savior's death on the Cross, we are redeemed from sin, damnation, and death. The blood of the Innocent One was shed on the Cross, so that the guilty could escape the wrath of God that they deserved: "by His stripes we are healed." Therefore, "Christ died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3). What goodness and what ineffable mercy of God to us, sinners!
Nailed to the Cross and shedding His most pure Blood, He became an eternal Intercessor for us before God the Father. His wounded hands lovingly embrace the entire human race and lead all who wish to the Father. That which separated the Creator from creation, God from men, the Heavenly Father from the disobedient sons of men, was destroyed by the Sacrifice of Golgotha. The sting of death has been blunted, the gates of hades have been broken, the power of the devil has been destroyed, the faithful have been granted freedom and the gates of paradise have been opened, so that the Cross, the instrument of shameful death, has now become for all believers a precious and supreme holy object, an indestructible weapon in the struggle against the enemies of our salvation.
Erected on Golgotha, it shines brightly over the entire universe, warming our immortal souls with its rays, cold from sins and sorrows. Come all of you to this Cross, look upon it, and you will find true peace. As Moses of old raised up a brazen serpent in the wilderness, and whosoever looked upon it received healing and life from the stinging of the serpent, so the Cross of Christ, raised on Golgotha, bestows healing and rest upon all our souls wounded by sins: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so it is fitting the Son of Man to be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15). Such is God's ineffable mercy to us, sinners, that at the mere thought of all that has been done for us by Divine love, the uncorrupted human heart must involuntarily be filled with the greatest gratitude to the Creator.
As we venerate the Holy Cross today, let us remember, however, that our veneration of the Cross of the Lord should not consist only in outward actions and words, but should also be accomplished in the depths of our soul, our spirit. First of all, we need to realize that the One Crucified on the Cross is the God-Man, the Creator of the entire universe, and therefore a feeling of fear and trembling should overwhelm our soul when we kiss the Holy Cross.
Crucified on the Cross for our sins, the Lord wished that we, cleansed from sins by His Blood, should live for righteousness and be holy in all our lives, and for this we would be vouchsafed eternal blessedness in the Kingdom of His Father. And therefore, if we sin, we will be subjected to a terrible punishment not only for our sins, but also for the Blood of the Son of God, which we trample underfoot, and for the grace with which we are sanctified in the Mystery of Baptism and which we have neglected. Do we not crucify the Lord a second time by our sins? Let us guard ourselves in every possible way from sins and vices and remain faithful to the Lord, remembering that firm faith attracts God's favor and mercy to us.
As an example of a steadfast confession of faith in God, the Church presents for us today the radiant memory of the Holy Maccabean Martyrs, who lived a century and a half before the Nativity of Christ. It was a difficult time for the Jewish people, when the impious Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes, having plundered Jerusalem and slaughtered many thousands of Jews, began an evil persecution of their faith, wishing to eradicate it completely. For this purpose he commanded the Jews, under the threat of the death penalty, to cease burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to abolish the Sabbaths and feasts, to build pagan altars and to offer pagan sacrifices there, to abolish circumcision, and in general to change all the former religious beliefs, laws, manners, and customs of the fathers.
At this time, for the consolation of the Jewish people, the Lord raised up many firm confessors of faith in the true God, who, not wishing to renounce the laws of their fathers, chose rather to die than to be defiled, and bravely endured a martyr's end. Among them were the ninety-year-old elder Eleazar, the seven Maccabean brothers and their mother Solomone.
Elder Eleazar was tempted by the torturers with the opportunity to offer sacrifice, even if only pretendedly, and thus preserve his life, but he, whitened with gray hair and filled with piety, answered: "It is unworthy of my age to be hypocritical in order to preserve the little life of my days...", and then he was mercilessly tortured.
In the same way, the holy Maccabee brothers, confessing their faith and hope for the future resurrection, courageously accepted a martyr's death one after another, strengthened by the hope that the Lord would revive them in the life to come. After all of them, their blessed mother Solomone also gave up her spirit into the hands of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, with full awareness of all the goodness and mercy of God towards us, let us today fall down before the Honorable Cross, this banner of our salvation, with true filial love we kiss the most pure feet of the Savior, calling upon Him: We venerate Your Cross, O Master, and glorify Your holy Resurrection! Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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