Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as the after-feast of the Elevation of the Cross!

Today, when the Lord’s Cross lies before us in church and we hear the triumphant hymns about how the crucified Christ defeated the devil, freed us from slavery to sin, and conquered the whole world, we are awed and ask the question: how in the world could all of this come to be? How is it that a condemned and crucified Jew could become that Person who conquered the whole world and united everyone around Himself and His Cross in His Church? This is a fantasy!

It’s about this that we read today in the epistle lesson. The Apostle Paul, back in the middle of the first century, when the preaching of the Crucified One was just beginning, already saw, already knew that this faith was for the whole world. Already then the question was being asked about how this new teaching was spreading so successfully. Not only did the teaching about the crucified and risen Christ seem strange, but His disciples and preachers were also strange, clumsy, simple, uneducated, from a far-off province, fishermen, tax collectors and sewers of tents. To add insult to injury, the Apostle Paul had such weak vision that he had a hard time writing with his own hand. It’s hard to believe that a half-blind man, in difficult circumstances, could travel the whole world. Very well aware of all of this, Paul calls himself and the other apostles earthen vessels (i. e. clay jars or dishes), insignificant, seemingly brittle and breakable, unfit for the rigours of spreading the light of Christ to the whole world. And despite this these clay jars not only did not shatter, but wherever they may have found themselves, spread the salvific faith of the Crucified Christ. The Apostle mentions that this was done with purpose by the Lord, so that it would be obvious to all that God Himself, and not man, was spreading faith in Christ far and wide. Without the participation of the Creator, this would have been impossible.

Although today the Cross of Jesus Christ remains the most widespread, the most recognizable symbol on our planet, it’s hard to say that we live in a Christian world. Perhaps there are corners where faith in the Lord still dominates, but as a rule, we live in a post-Christian world. It’s not rare that we see that the image of the Cross drives people to feelings of hatred towards the faithful, instead of to feelings of repentance and a desire to run to the embrace of the crucified Saviour. Throughout the last century, innumerable people have been killed for their faith. Despite all of this, today we are standing in church before the Cross and glorifying our crucified and risen Saviour. All we can say is that this is a miracle! Therefore, let’s not despair and think that the end is near. Let’s remember that, like the apostles, we are brittle clay jars, incapable of spreading our faith or saving the Church from its enemies, but that God is always protecting us and saving His Church from ruin.

priest Alexis