In the
services for this Sunday the Holy Church glorifies the Holy Cross and the
fruits of the death of the Savior on the Cross. She will carry out the Holy
Cross into the middle of the temple for veneration, and is why the Sunday is
called the Veneration of the Cross. In the hymns for this day the holy Church,
inviting us to honor the holy cross, tenderly appeals: "Now the angelic
hosts gather in reverence and bear aloft the honored Wood, and calling together
all the faithful for the veneration. Come therefore and illumined by the fast,
let us fall down before it with joy and fear". "Cleansed by
abstinence let us draw near, and with fervent praise let us venerate the
all-holy Wood on which Christ was crucified, when He saved the world in His
compassion". "Come, faithful, and let us venerate the life-giving
tree, on which Christ, the King of Glory voluntarily stretched out his hands.
He raised us up to the ancient blessedness, whom the enemy despoiled of old
through pleasure, making us exiles far from God. Come, faithful, and let us
venerate the tree whereby we have been counted worthy to crush the heads of our
invisible enemies. Come, all kindred of the nations, let us honor in hymns the
Cross of the Lord". Glorifying the most Holy Cross, the Holy Church sings:
"Rejoice, life-bearing Cross, the beautiful Paradise of the Church, the
Tree of incorruption that brings us the enjoyment of eternal glory",
"The indestructible foundation, and the victory of kings and the praise of
priests". "Rejoice, life-bearing Cross, piety of invincible victory,
door to paradise, foundation of the faithful, protection of the church: through
you the curse is utterly destroyed, the power of death is swallowed up, and we
are raised from earth to heaven: invincible weapon, adversary of demons, glory
of martyrs, true ornament of holy monks, haven of salvation".
"Rejoice, O Cross, complete salvation of fallen Adam! Glorying in you, our
faithful kings by your might laid low the people of Ishmael. We Christians kiss
you now with awe, and glorifying God who was nailed on you, we cry aloud: O
Lord, Who was crucified on the Cross, have mercy on us, for Thou art good and
loves mankind."
The
purpose of instituting the Holy Cross in the service on the third Sunday will
be revealed as a beautiful comparison by the Holy Church to the tree of life in
paradise, the tree which sweetened the bitter waters of Marah, the tree with
the canopy of leaves under whose shade tired travelers seeking the eternal
promised land may find coolness and rest. Thus, the Holy Church offers the Holy
Cross for spiritual reinforcement to those going through the ascetic effort of
the fast, just as food, drink and rest serve as bodily reinforcement. This
spiritual reinforcement is given as the representation of the love of God to
man for whom the Son of God turned Himself over to death on the Cross. It is
especially necessary in the middle of our effort because now our ascetic
efforts already have lost much of the freshness of its power and however yet
cannot hopefully enliven itself for the near and successful ending of our
ascetical effort. Having concentrated all that is the most severe and sorrowful
in the worship services of the previous weeks, especially during the first,
that may both frighten the sinner and apparently touch the hardest of human
hearts, now in the middle of the large and difficult arena of the Holy Forty
Day Fast the Holy Church offers the Holy Cross for great comfort and
encouragement as needed for raising the flagging strength of those fasting.
Wherefore nothing can console, encourage, and inspire the fatigued, or perhaps
even the Christian weakened in spirit so much as the presentation of the
eternal divine love of the Savior who turned Himself over to the struggle on
the Cross for the sake of our salvation.
For such
a purpose the Holy Church offers the Cross on the third Sunday of Great Lent
from of old. Many hymns of praise for this Sunday were composed by Joseph and
Theodore of the Studite Monastery. Everything in the worship service of this
day: the most Holy Cross solemnly carried from the altar to the middle of the
temple, the singing of the stichera for venerating the Cross, the Epistle
recounting the suffering of the Savior on the Cross as the means of our
reconcilement with God, the Gospel reminding the Christian about everyone’s
duty to bear their cross in life, following the Crucified One on the Cross, -
everything that promotes the deep stamp of the Cross of Christ on the heart of
the believer, as a sign of our salvation, as our mighty, God-given power,
saving us on earth and opening to us the entrance to the high place of our
fatherland, as the highest and more powerful reinforcement of believers among
the ascetics of the Holy Forty Day Fast. If the Lord suffered on a Cross for
our sake then we also should practice asceticism unceasingly in fasting, prayer
and other efforts of piety for His sake, discharging from ourselves and
destroying in ourselves all that interferes with these efforts. With the aim of
our greater enthusiasm for patience in efforts of piety, the Holy Church on the
present day comfortably reminds us beforehand about coming nearer "to the
light of the peaceful joy of Pascha", hymning in the troparia of the canon
the holy cross and the suffering of the Savior on it, together with His joyful
resurrection and inviting the faithful "with pure mouths" to sing
"the song of joyfulness" (Irmos of Holy Pascha).
According
to the Church hymns: "In the middle of the Fast, the all honorable Tree
calls in worship" all those who "worthily follow through their
passion the passion of Christ", who in the first half of the Holy Forty
Day Fast have fervently practiced asceticism in fasting and prayers, in
repentance and cleansing from all impurities, in acts of love and good works.
For those, the Holy Cross of Christ really serves with the most comfort and
strongest encouragement for the continuation of their Lenten efforts,
"easing their lenten time".
But how
and for what will they approach the life-giving Cross of Christ in the course
of the holy days of "the soul-pleasing Forty Day Fast" when they lead
the usual sinful, vain, sensual life which, perhaps, even after Holy Confession
and Holy Communion remain the same as before, with the same passions and with
the same insensitivity and hardness of heart? How will they kiss the Holy Cross
when during the holy days of the fast they strayed to the way of vice and yet
have not taken the way to true repentance, the real struggle against their
passions? How will they touch the pierced side of Christ, who in their heart
and during the days the Lenten tenderness did not cease to be the source only
of "evil desire, theft, usury, insult, cunning, temptation, shunning,
abuse, arrogance, and foolishness"? How will those touch the Holy Tree,
when their impure mouth opened only for idle talk and malicious gossip, for
condemnation and slander, for grumbling and indignation? How will they look on
the stretched body of Christ hanging on the Cross, who with cowardice yielded
to any need of the flesh, satisfied all whims, and were afraid to give up for
themselves even the excessively fashionable food and clothes? Will they even
worship the Crucified One on the Cross? But then will their acts of worship be
distinct from those genuflections, with which the warriors of Pilate fearlessly
greeted the condemned Jesus on the cross? Will they even kiss the wounds of
Christ? But would these kisses be better than the kiss of Judas?
So the
negligence of people and the very saving suffering of Christ can turn into
condemnation, and the word of comfort cross changes to a word of bitter
accusations! So from the one cup of the eternal covenant, the Christian,
faithful to his name, vigilant about his salvation, or renewed by true
repentance, sings of life eternal; but those uncaring about salvation,
insensitive to the voice of the grace of God sings eternal condemnation! But
the Holy Church offers the life-giving Cross of Christ also to the careless in
hope that the beneficial power of the Cross will also touch their heart and
will urge them away from the deep sleep of the sinner. "They will respect
my son" said the owner of the vineyard, sending his only son to the
tenants who were grumbling against him (Mt. 21:7). "They will respect the
wounds of the Son of God", as if thus the Holy Church speaks about her
prodigal and disobedient children, offering them the sight of the life-giving
Cross of Christ. She hopes that the sight of the Divine Sufferer will remind
the sinners, that as they were baptized into the death of Christ, they promised
to serve the Lord instead of the world and the devil, to please God instead of
their flesh, to obey the will of God instead of their lusts and passions.
The Holy
Church hopes that souls will be found though guilty, but not fallen into the
depths of evil, not going towards the edge of hardness, by which a look at the
instrument of the suffering of the Son of God will shakes the conscience, will
prick the heart, will make the saving change of thoughts and feelings so that
they will return from the temple as many returned from Golgotha, "beating
their breasts" (Lk. 23:48), and in their life from now on will go by the
way of faith, repentance and Christian piety. (See details in "Full
Collection of the Sermons of Demetrius, Archbishop of Chersonese", vol. 4,
pages 324-326). They, as Ambrose of Milan teaches, should "grieve and cry,
however not pushing to despair, because the One who has enlightened the eyes of
the man blind from birth (Jn. 9), can make them both zealous and firm in His
service if only they want to return with a pure heart. Therefore, let them
recognize they are in their blindness and let them run to the Physician who can
enlighten them."
By Sergei V. Bulgakov
Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/03/why-we-glorify-cross-during-great-lent.html
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