The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross
1 Corinthians 1:18-24; John 19:6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30-35
Feast of our Lord. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat.
Read John 19:6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30-35
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today is one of the twelve Great Feasts of our liturgical year: the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross. We celebrate the discovery of Christ’s cross in Jerusalem through the efforts of Sts. Constantine and Helena in the year 326. There is a story that explains three crosses were found. However, Patriarch Macarius identified the cross of our Lord by touching it to a corpse and finding the dead man come back to life. The cross was then elevated on high so that it could be venerated by the multitudes.
Our reading today presents John the Evangelist’s account of Christ’s crucifixion. If we recall the Parable of the Tenants (Cf. Matthew 21; Mark 12; Luke 20), we remember that God sent messenger after messenger to the Jewish people over the course of centuries. However, they rejected them. Then God willed to become flesh and send His Son to us, humbling Himself not only to be born as a human creature but also to die the most despicable kind of death at the hands of those who rejected Him as well.
The cross is the ultimate symbol of the destruction of death and the unfathomable love of God for us. Let us meditate this week on these realities. We can use the doxasticheron of the stichera from last night’s Vespers to help us:
Come, all you people,* let us venerate the blessed Cross of the Lord* through which eternal justice came to us.* He who deceived Adam, the first man,* was conquered by a tree,* and the same who fettered the royal creation by his cunning* has been cast down into nothingness.* The venom of the serpent has been washed away* by the divine blood of Christ.* The curse of the rightful sentence was lifted* when the just Christ was condemned unjustly.* By God’s plan, death that had come from a tree* would be conquered by a Tree,* and suffering would be healed by the suffering of the Lord.* Glory to the active presence of Your providence in our lives, O Christ, our King.* Through it You have brought salvation for all,* for You are gracious and the Lover of mankind.