The cross of Christ, Christ’s triumphant and life-giving death on the cross whereby He destroys death, is so important for us to understand as Orthodox Christians, that the Church gives special significance and specific Scripture readings for both the weekend before the Feast and the one that follows. So, having celebrated the universal Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross this week and what it means for humanity, this Sunday after the Exaltation, the Church would have us ask ourselves, “what does the power of the cross mean for me personally, living in the world today?”
Sadly, for many in today’s secular culture, its meaning, both personally and corporately, has been lost, drowned out by the priorities of our work-a-day lives, where the Church takes a back seat to so many other seemingly ‘important’ priorities. This secular world thinks in temporal terms: all I experience in the here and now, everything I can see and touch, is the extent of my existence as a material being, so, “eat, drink, for tomorrow, we die” (I Cor. 15:32). In part, for this reason, the world urges focus on self, ego, “me first,” even as it urges us not to deny ourselves anything; in short, our culture leads us to and encourages spiritual lethargy.
A world that doesn’t believe in God and His revelation, that denies the bodily Incarnation, miraculous, and life-saving historic events of Christ and His power is a world where there are no real consequences for evil or the darkness and violence of the evil one: it’s a world where the way to healing from passions will be forgotten. It’s a world where it will become increasingly difficult to be a true Christian, one who loves God “with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind,” (Matt. 22:37) to which we are all called in today’s Gospel.
The cross is our answer to the fallen world and its hopelessness, to those who deny God and His loving calling on their lives. The cross is always a reminder of the ultimate reality and relevance of the Kingdom of God for us, a reminder of self-emptying (kenosis in the Greek)—Christ willingly, voluntarily offers Himself to defeat sin and death on our behalf and make possible a new race of Adam that will in Him likewise gain the victory over sin and death. In His “dying to self,” we regain our true humanity, our God-given purpose and calling in this life.
But here’s the truth: we cannot follow Christ and become fellow partakers of His victory if we aren’t likewise willing to empty ourselves of that which is not in keeping with our life in Christ. As Christ says, we cannot serve God and mammon. Instead, we’re called to be “in the world, but not of the world.” This calling isn’t something we can just decide to forego as “modern Christians.” Instead, we challenge ourselves every day to live for Christ, to submit ourselves to His will, to reflect the Kingdom of God in all that we are and all that we do.
St. Paul says, that in baptism “we have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). Well, if we’ve truly “put on Christ”, then we are Christ’s and we must be about Christ’s work even as we are being made more and more into His likeness, the likeness of the new Adam, Christ Jesus. For each of us, is, in a sense, through our action or inaction on this account, deciding for God—or—for the world.
St. Paul reminds us the Sunday prior to the Feast that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, even as it is the power of God to those who are being saved (I Cor. 1:18). To the world, self-denial, even true love itself, is alien because a secular, humanistic world seeks to understand ‘love’ apart from God, the Author of love. He is the One who teaches us what love is and how to love: “We love Him because He first loved us,” St. John declares in his first Epistle (I Jn. 1:9). And this Love directs us to the cross, to the ultimate sign of God’s love for us, manifested in the Incarnation and then in Christ’s saving Passion and His calling us to share in that new life He’s made for us who have “put Him on.”
Love is, then, both sacrificial and holy; true love becomes life-giving because it further unites us with God and with each other as we learn to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ, not only outwardly in our acts, but inwardly as we’re transformed and grow in unity with Christ, as we partake of the Divine Nature (II Peter 1:4). When Christ stands at the center of our lives, our priorities, He’s at the center of our love too because always, there stands the cross! Christ reminds us of this truth in today’s other Gospel, saying, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
In other words, as Fr. Arsenie Boca exclaims, “he who makes the sign of the cross, must also be prepared to carry his cross.” When we carry our cross we proclaim Christ’s victory inwardly and outwardly, we guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus from the demons and their vices, but we also witness to those around us the truth that His victory is for all mankind, that all are loved by God and called to holiness and new life through communion with Him.
So, in order to gain the victory with Christ over this world and all that’s passing away, we humble ourselves to become not just Christ-like but what Christ is; in order to gain the victory and become fellow heirs with Christ, we too die to ego and to the world, to secular demands that we keep the cross hidden to ourselves, that we not sign ourselves or pray in public. But Christ demands more from us: He calls on us to come outside ourselves, to give of ourselves, to become courageous witnesses of the life in Christ to this perishing world without shrinking back. Why? Because the love of God compels us to, because loving Christ, we learn to desire healing and salvation not just for ourselves but for the whole world, certainly for those whom God brings into our lives. This too is a cross, a great denial, in a world where we are told to keep our faith to ourselves and where the truth of Christ is an affront to the demands of secular humanism and hedonism that demand we keep our faith and our life in Christ to ourselves.
Those who have denied themselves, who have taken up their cross and followed Christ will gain the victory as fellow heirs of Christ’s Kingdom. This is our Lord’s great promise of love to us this day: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
We proclaim this love, this hope, to a world that no longer knows what love is and how to love, or how or why to deny themselves or any gratification. We give of ourselves to build up the Church and her ministries, we give of ourselves to witness to the truth in word and action, how we live our lives. In taking up our cross daily, we proclaim the reality of Christ’s life and victory over sin and death to the world around us. We who are struggling with our sins and persevere to the end with that struggle, always returning to Christ and bearing the fruit of repentance, bear witness of the victory of the cross. We loudly and undeniably proclaim to an otherwise hopeless world the Truth and Reality that Christ is, that life in Him is our sure hope and healing. Romanian theologian, Fr. Dumitru Staniloae wrote, “The cross is the power of Christ, which when taken up by us, can transform the world into paradise.”
So, examine your life this day. Are you denying yourself, taking up your cross to follow Christ? Renew your commitment this day to deny yourself what the world says your focus should be and re-prioritize your life in Christ, your communion with Him who is Life above all else, take up your cross, follow Christ, and know that He will be with you every step of the way. Fear God and you will have no need for the fear of man. And then, we can truly affirm with St. Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). If you do so, the world around you will be transformed into paradise.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
September 17, 2017—Sunday After the Elevation of the Cross
Epistle: II Cor. 4:6-15; Galatians 2:16-20
Gospel: Matt. 22:35-46; Mark 8:34-9:1
