🕀 The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross.
Feast of the Lord. Holy Day of obligation. Day of fast.
1 Corinthians 1:18-24; John 19:6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30-35.
Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-24
Today the Church celebrates the Universal Exaltation ( lifting up) of the Precious and Life Giving Cross. At the characteristic moment of the service we see the Holy Cross lifted up to the four cardinal points and we bow down as we chant: To Your cross, O Master, we bow in veneration, and we glorify Your holy resurrection.
As we freely bow down in worship before the Holy Cross, we should remember that this liturgical veneration of the Cross is not just a nice ceremony, but a true invitation for us to struggle daily by voluntarily taking up the cross in our own lives.
In today’s epistle reading, St. Paul tells us that, “…the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Co 1:18). He says this because for those who are not yet living in Christ, the cross represents the worst kind of suffering, both in the sense of the physical pains associated with crucifixion, but also in the sense of the utter hopelessness of the one crucified. Why would we worship such an object?
For Christians, the cross means something totally different – it is the way to death, yes; but a death that leads to resurrection. This is why we sing in the Church, that Christ has trampled death by death (Paschal Troparion), and, “no longer shall the dominion of death be able to hold humanity, for Christ went down shattering and destroying its power” (Resurrectional Troparion, Tone 7)
To let these hymns remain simply words on a page, misses the point – we, Christians, are called to voluntarily take up our own particular crosses in order to find healing and salvation for our souls. This is not easy, because our attachments to our passions mean that this struggle for faithfulness will usually require suffering. This is not because our suffering is somehow pleasing to God in itself, but because of the inevitable pushback we experience when we seek to go against the passions and instead conform our lives to Christ.
Recall that in the garden, the night before His passion, Jesus prayed: “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42). He went to His passion willingly, in free obedience, and likewise no one is going to force us to take up our crosses either. Though it is true that many sufferings come upon us involuntarily, it is equally true that through them all we retain our intrinsic freedom. We can use this freedom (by the grace of God) to take up our cross and refuse to fall into despair. In this way, the sufferings of this life become an opportunity for us to bow in veneration to the cross, to voluntarily deny ourselves and to follow after our Lord.