Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the great feast of the Elevation of the honourable and life-giving Cross!

Today during the Divine Liturgy we heard the very familiar Gospel excerpt from John about the crucifixion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Of course, this is not the only place in the four Gospels where we can read about the Cross. All four evangelists narrate the crucifixion in detail. Apart from this, if we read the Gospels with attention, we will notice that the Cross is at the centre of the entire Gospel narrative. On many occasions Christ warned His disciples, and not only the disciples but all the Jews, about His impending death on the Cross. We heard about this in yesterday’s Gospel reading. Nor must we forget that the epistles of the apostles also speak at length about the salvific sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. It is not only the New Testament that is tied together into one whole by the Cross, but all of Holy Scripture, for in the Old Testament, as last night’s most wonderful divine service related, the Cross is everywhere present in foreshadowings, prophecies, and symbolic actions.

Truly the Cross is that golden thread which joins together all of Holy Scripture and all the righteous of all of human history into one whole! We, dear Brothers and Sisters, are also called to weave into the fabric of our own lives the golden thread of the Cross. The Saviour Himself taught about this saying: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16: 24). The Holy Apostle Paul expressed this idea with the following words: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2: 19-20).

Today on this wonderful feastday, it behooves us to think about how to practically be crucified with Christ or to take up the cross and follow after Him. Few of us are ready to reject our regular life and settle in a monastery, and even more so to leave our peaceful country to preach Christ amongst His enemies so as to contest for a martyr’s crown. In last night’s Gospel reading, we heard the following words of the Saviour: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12: 32). A crucified man no longer stands on firm ground, but hangs above it. He, although still a living participant of the physical world, in some ways is already separated from it. He exists, as it were, between a carnal life and a life after death. To be crucified with Christ could mean for us this type of lifting up or separation from our world. Naturally, we are obliged to make a living so as to feed ourselves and our children, but we should not tie ourselves to our earnings and to the pleasant things of this world. One can use all the good and pleasant things of this world, but in such a way that we do not regret parting with them when a neighbour is in need of help or when, God forbid, the authorities of this world demand that we choose between temporal and eternal prosperity.

Through the prayers of the Holy Hierarch of Christ John Chrysostom, whose day of repose happens to be today and who truly took up his cross and was crucified with Christ, let each of us endeavour to lift ourselves above worldly cares and to have before us at all times the image of our crucified Saviour on the Cross, so as to inherit an eternal and blessed life with all the saints.

Priest Alexis