Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,

September 25, 1986

Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord

The Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, in addition to the Forefeast and the Afterfeast, in addition to the Giving Away that most of the Twelve Great Feasts have, also has its beginning in the Saturday before the Exaltation. That is, in practice, the Holy Church celebrates this feast not for one week, but for two, liturgically emphasizing its importance and paying special attention to it so that we too may partake of it. Through her spiritual experience, with her spiritual eye, the Church sees the truth and mystery of Christ, and through the divine services, in which we all participate in our own measure, she tries to sow these truths, these mysteries in our hearts.

Here in front of us in the center of the temple lies the Cross, decorated with flowers. It is very beautiful, this Cross, and on it is Christ the Savior bleeding. In Christianity, nothing lends itself to simple logic, but on the contrary, as philosophers say, everything is antinomic. For example, God is a Trinity and God is one - how is this possible? It is impossible to understand this, one can only contemplate it, one can join it through spiritual experience. Any dogma of Orthodoxy cannot simply be logically explained, calculated, calculated, it is beyond purely practical understanding. And in the Cross of the Lord there is the same mystery.

Each of us knows from experience that the cross has great power, and most Christians are afraid to take the cross off their neck for just a minute, so as not to deprive themselves of its protective power. With the cross we begin every prayer, and with the cross we end it. With the cross we cover our bed before going to bed. With the Cross we sanctify our homes, decorate sacred vestments and churches. The cross itself is remarkably beautiful, has a perfect shape, but it is not because of its beauty that it has such power, but because Christ was crucified on it. Therefore, when our souls are gloomy, and this happens because the demonic army brings despondency upon us, it is enough for us to look at the Cross of Christ and compare our sorrow with the sorrow of Christ - and our sorrow will seem to us simply ridiculous in comparison with that which He carried in His heart when He saw our sins. When something hurts us and it is difficult for us to endure the pain, it is enough to look at the Cross of Christ - and we will immediately feel ashamed that we are squeaking and whining from small trials in comparison with those trials that the Lord endured for us. When we are left alone, and it seems to us that we are abandoned by everyone, and in our hearts there is anguish, it is enough to look at the Cross of Christ - and we will feel ashamed, because we are never alone. The Lord said, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." That is, keeping the memory of the Cross in our minds, we can live without fearing anything.

All the fears and confusions that we experience, all our difficulties, all our perplexities, all our lack of understanding of the spiritual life, our unwillingness to bear our cross, all our faint-heartedness, lack of faith, all our weakness come from the fact that we give our mind and heart over to the desecration of the devil. And those thoughts that the devil tries to plant in our minds and take possession of our hearts through the mind, he induces so that we reject the Cross. The devil constantly leads us away, and he is so cunning that he has already removed all of humanity from the Cross, because by the Cross a person is saved, and if he is removed from the Cross, then salvation becomes impossible.

If a person is given a long, painless, easy comfort, if he is given a life that is brilliant, beautiful, peaceful, happy, well-fed, and interesting, then he will perish for the Kingdom of Heaven. The striving for happiness, for a well-fed, calm, serene, painless and long existence – this is a striving for hell, it is a striving to get away from the Cross of the Lord, a striving to establish not the Kingdom of Heaven, but an earthly kingdom, to prolong earthly calm and happy well-being. This is a devilish undertaking, in which he has succeeded a lot, and all mankind is simply fascinated, it simply craves earthly happiness. And salvation is in the Cross. A cross, and on it a bloody Man, beaten, spat upon, betrayed and abandoned by everyone except His Mother, several women and one beloved disciple.

Therefore, in celebrating today's feast, the Church tries to put into our hearts the thought of the salvific nature of the Cross and the salvific nature of suffering. The Lord ascended to heaven through the Cross, and a Christian ascends to heaven only through the bearing of the cross. Suffering is good, the Church affirms. Therefore, if we are in suffering, in sorrow, in some kind of spiritual turmoil, in despair, and turn to God with prayer, then this prayer should not be for the Lord to deliver us. Many are confused by the fact that the church prayer contains a petition to "deliver us from all sorrow." But the point here is not at all to deliver us from the cross, but from our wrong attitude to sorrow, because a person who is rightly and Christianly constituted does not have sorrow, regardless of whether his body suffers, or he is abandoned, or he wants to eat or drink, or he has some difficult circumstances. Such a person endures sorrowful sufferings with good humor, and the saints even with joy. They grieve only for their imperfection.

Someone will say: but Christ grieved, didn't he? Yes, Christ grieved, and the Mother of God grieved, and many saints grieved and are grieving now. What sorrow in the Christian heart is pleasing to God? Only one is the sorrow of compassion, when the heart, seeing the sufferings of others, suffers for them; suffers when he sees that his neighbor deviates from the true path, deviates from the cross. And the sight of this, of course, is difficult to bear, it is impossible to see it without sorrow. Each of us knows from experience that the suffering of our children brings us more suffering than our own, and many mothers would agree to suffer themselves, if only their children did not suffer, precisely because compassion brings greater sorrow.

Therefore, sorrow is a natural property of our soul, but we, perverted by sin, who have lost the ability to love, which has been perverted in us into self-love, begin to grieve from the misfortunes that happen to us, and this is not Christian sorrow. And the Lord, having ascended the Cross, nailed our sorrow, committed from our sins, to the Cross and thereby gave us a sign that we can be cleansed from sin through sorrows, bearing our cross and following the commandments of Christ.

Why does the Cross of the Lord have such terrifying power for all the demonic, demonic army? Why, when we are besieged by some thoughts, obsessive thoughts, ideas or some other temptations, is it enough to calmly, with faith, make the sign of the cross - and our mind is freed, the devil departs? Why does the sign of the cross, as with fire, burn up every demonic delusion? What is the mystery here? Why can't the devil see the sign of the cross and constantly wants to destroy it in some way? Because the Cross reminds Satan and his minions of the supreme power of the Divinity's humility. The devil fell away from God through pride. The Lord defeated the devil with His humility. Humility is unbearable for Satan, so the sight of the Cross is unbearable for him - this greatest manifestation of the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just imagine how He humbled Himself - from His birth to Golgotha, this was the path of the greatest humility. After all, He was God, one word of His would have been enough for this earth to disappear and a new one to arise; in another word, so that a new Adam, a new man, arises, and the whole history of the universe can be started from the beginning. But the Lord did not do this. He came, from the Almighty he became a man, he was born into the world as a little child, he was persecuted, mocked, misunderstood, betrayed, spat upon, beaten, killed, finally. What the greatest humility! What a way He shows us! What a salvific means for victory over the devil is indicated!