Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, with the completion of the first half of Great Lent, as well as with the feast of the Life-Giving Cross!

We all, of course, know that we are saved and freed from our sins through the death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on the Cross. Although we know this, for many it would probably be difficult to explain how this is so. How is it that the shameful death of Christ on the Cross opens to us the door into the Kingdom of Heaven? The Church, through her liturgical texts, uses different images and metaphors to try to cast light on how this is possible. Today, let’s focus our attention on one of these images.

Very often the Cross is called a tree, not because it is made of wood, but because the Cross takes the place of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which grew in Paradise, and through which the first people sinned and became mortal. Remember that we recently said that many sins and passions can be healed through opposite good deeds. When the Cross is called the tree, we are talking about the same idea, that is, that through a tree death came into the world, and therefore through another better tree, through the Cross, life is returned to us.

This wonderful image can be taken further. In the liturgical texts we often find the idea that the Mother of God is the new Eve. Eve was the first to sin and pulled Adam into sin. The Most-Holy Virgin Mary is the new Eve because through her, Jesus Christ, Who frees us from sin, came to earth. Christ is called the new Adam, for it is through Him that we receive the ability to renew our spiritual life; we are given a new beginning, and through Him life begins from scratch. Adam and Eve sinned through tasting the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, while we are cleansed from sins and find immortality through eating the fruit of the new tree of the Cross, i. e. though communing of Christ’s Mysteries, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see what a beautiful image is drawn up?

Dear Brothers and Sisters, each of us is also called to participate in this ‘image’. Each one of us is called to put off the old, sinful, mortal man and become new. The new man, in a mysterious way, through the patient carrying of his personal problems and misfortunes, participates in the death on the Cross and in the burial of Jesus Christ. Since he participates in the death, it is reasonable to think that he also participates in the Resurrection, and, in such a way, is freed from the consequences of death.

Today, on this marvelous and joyful day, when the image of the crucified Lord on the Tree of Life lies before us, it would behoove us to consider to what extent we are actually renew people, rejuvenated though the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Who do we resemble more, Eve and the old Adam, or the Most-Holy Mother of God and the new Adam, Christ? What type of food nourishes us, the fruits of the old destructive tree of conceit and self-love, or the fruits of selflessness of the new tree of the Cross? Let each of us answer for himself these questions, and if needed, use the second half of Great Lent to correct that which is lacking.

priest Alexis