LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXVI — 'Types of This Tree'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

“Oh how did we not remember types of this tree! For of old they were shown forth in many and varied ways and saved the lost. By a tree, Noah was saved, but the whole world, unbelieving, was destroyed. Moses was glorified through one when he took a staff as a scepter, but Egypt, with the plagues that came from it, was drowned as though fallen into deep wells. What it has now done, the Cross showed forth of old in image. Why then are we weeping? For Adam is going again to paradise.”

—Dialogue between the devil and Hades on their fall by the Cross, in St Romanos the Melodist’s On the Victory of the Cross, a crucifixion kontakion for Wednesday of Mid-Lent, as found in Hymns of Repentance (Translated by Andrew Mellas)

____

St. Romanos the Melodist (his icon is on one of our deacon's doors) was one of the great masters of a kind of poetic theology, on full display in his magnificent kontakia. His use of typological interpretations of the Old Testament, together with his arresting metaphors - and a certain "daring" speculation - as is this dialogue between the devil and hades, has created a series of wonderfully resonant images that the Church has embraced now for centuries.

 

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXII — The Midpoint and the Cross

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

The meaning of all this is clear. We are in mid-Lent. On the one hand, the physical and spiritual effort, if it is serious and consistent, begins to be felt, its burden becomes more burdensome, our fatigue more evident. We need help and encouragement. 

On the other hand, having endured this fatigue, having climbed the mountain up to this point, we begin to see the end of our pilgrimage, and the rays of Easter grow in their intensity. Lent is our self-crucifixion, our experience, limited as it is, of Christ’s commandment heard in the gospel lesson of that Sunday: If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8.34). But we cannot take up our cross and follow Christ unless we have his Cross which he took up in order to save us. It is his Cross, not ours, that saves....

The emphasis shifts now from us, from our repentance and effort, to the events that took place “for our sake and for our salvation.

—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent

_____

This fine passage from Fr. Schmemann prepares us for the second half of Great Lent. We hope and pray that there is still something "in the tank" as the original zeal and commitments for these "all revered days" perhaps begins to wane. It is precisely because the Cross of Christ saves us that we are privileged to sing at every Liturgy: "For through the Cross, joy has come into the world." That joy is sourced in the following: When Jesus prepares His disciples for the Cross (Mk. 8:31; 9:31-32; 10:33-34), He also simultaneously reveals to them, that "after three days he will rise."

'Cross-bearers' - Not Simply 'Cross-wearers'

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,   At the very midpoint of Great Lent we venerate the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. If we have in any way taken up the cross of asceticism in obedience to the Church and in reaction to our over-indulgent surroundings, then by the Third Sunday of Great Lent the purpose of our ascetical efforts - and the very goal of our journey - are brought to our attention: to stand by the Cross of the Lord as we journey toward Jerusalem and Holy Week.  The timing is perfect, for by this third Sunday of Great Lent we begin to tire, if not "wear out" with our lenten effort to this point. However, in our weakness we can find the strength and resolve to continue our journey with enthusiasm, and not simply obligation. This is made possible by the presence of the Cross, not only at the heart and center of Great Lent, but at the heart and center of the biblical revelation; of the entire historical process; of the cosmos; and at the heart and center of the Trinity, as the Lamb of God is slain before the foundation of the world.  With that in mind, we can chant and sing the appointed hymns cited above, not only as fine examples of Byzantine rhetoric, but as profound insights into the meaning and purpose of the Cross.  What may appear at first sight as hyperbole or exaggeration in the Church's hymnography, is discovered, upon deeper meditation, to be the search for words and images adequate to the great mystery of the Cross, in itself the inexhaustible wisdom of God as the "breadth and length, and height and depth" of that wisdom which will fill us "with the fulness of God"(EPH. 3:18-19). The only response to this Mystery once we begin to assimilate it, is to "bow down" in worship before the Master's Cross in awe and adoration.  In our liturgical tradition we decorate the Cross with flowers in order to enhance and reveal its inner beauty, as we bring the Cross in solemn procession into the midst of the church for veneration. The decorated Cross is one way of trying to capture the paradoxical nature of the Cross. For in no way is the Church trying to cover up the horror and brutality of crucifixionas one of the most perverse and twisted means of humanity's sinful capacity to inflict pain and humiliation on others. Here is the dark side of human nature at its most lethal. This is all clearly beneath the surface in the Gospels and their restrained and sober narrative of the Lord dying on the Cross. And it is on Golgotha "when they had crucified him" (MATT. 27:35) that we can begin to understand why the Lord "cried with a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, la'ma sabach'-tha'ni' that is 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (MATT. 27:46). It is in and through this cry of solidarity with suffering humanity while lifted up on the Cross that we never soften or "sing away" the horror of the Cross. We respect what it meant for the Lord to ascend the Cross. A clear-sighted realism demands that of us. Yet, Christ is our Passover, the Lamb of God "who takes away the sin of the world"(JN. 1:29). On the Cross, as the sinless Son of God, Christ absorbs and takes upon Himself all of that sin in order to overcome it from within. He died on the Cross, but death had no hold over Him. He died for the life of the world and its salvation. By His obedience to the will of the Father, Christ destroys death by death. For this reason, when we venerate the Cross we simultaneously glorify the Lord's "holy Resurrection." It is on the Cross that Christ is victorious, not in spite of the Cross. The Son glorifies the Father precisely while lifted up on the Cross. "I call Him King, because I see Him crucified," said St. John Chrysostom.  As we sing at every Liturgy after having received the Body and Blood of Christ: "for through the Cross joy has come into the world." That is an incredible claim, but through faith we understand that claim as the very heart of the Gospel, the "good news" that life has overcome death "once and for all." Whenever we taste of that joy, we taste of the glory of the Kingdom of God. Perhaps here we discover the paradoxical nature of a decorated Cross: the ultimate sign of defeat and death has become the "unconquerable trophy of the true faith." Or, as the Apostle Paul has declared:  "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (I COR. 1:18). The Lord taught us:  "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (MK. 8:34). These words challenge us to never be content with being passive observers of the Cross, but rather active participants in the life of self-denial and co-suffering love that are implied in taking up the Cross. This further means that by our very vocation as Christians, we are "cross-bearers" and not simply "cross-wearers." It is one thing to wear a cross, and another thing to bear a cross.  Of course it is a good thing that Christians do wear a cross. This is something of a identity badge that reveals that we are indeed Christians, but this worn cross is certainly not another piece of jewelry - Byzantine, three-barred, Celtic or Ethiopian! By wearing a cross we are saying in effect: I am a Christian, and therefore I belong to the Crucified One, who is none other than the "Lord and Master of my life." My ultimate allegiance is to Him, and to no other person or party. With the Apostle Paul, I also confess:  "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith ..." (ROM. 1:16).  Such a confession already takes us way beyond passively being a "cross-wearer" to actively being a "cross-bearer." Dying to sin in Baptism makes the impossible possible. And with a faith in Christ that is ever-deepening in maturity, we can further exclaim with the great Apostle:  "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (GAL. 5:24). The Third Sunday of Great Lent - The Adoration of the Life-Giving Cross - reveals, I believe, that here is something that makes Lent potentially great. Here are reasons that make taking Lent seriously a worthy and noble endeavor. We are slowly learning to be Cross-bearers, and in the process transforming the simple profession "I am a Christian," into a powerful confession of Faith.

This prayer weaves together the Cross and Resurrection...

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

GREAT LENT: The Twenty-Fourth Day

 

 

In this week of the Cross, we can turn to one of our most powerful prayers, one openly chanted immediately after we commune with the life-giving Mystery of the Eucharist. This prayer weaves together the Cross and Resurrection as two movements within the one paschal mystery of "life out of death." At times, we can take our beautiful prayers from the Divine Liturgy for granted. Yet, here is a prayer we never want to treat in that manner, and one we can pray outside of its liturgical context as we meditate on the cross and its unity with the resurrection of Christ. This prayer reads like an extended commentary on the paschal troparion, "Christ is Risen!" This prayer is a hymn that we chant with great conviction during the Matins of Pascha.

Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless One. We venerate Thy Cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection. For Thou art our God and we know no other than Thee, we call on Thy name. Come, O you faithful, let us venerate Christ's holy Resurrection, for behold through the Cross, joy has come into the world. Let us ever bless the Lord, praising His holy Resurrection, for through the Cross He has destroyed death by death.

 

'Cross-bearers' - Not Simply 'Cross-wearers'

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Shine, Cross of the Lord, shine with the light of thy grace upon the hearts of those that honor thee!
Hail! life-giving Cross, the fair Paradise of the Church, Tree of incorruption that brings us the enjoyment of eternal glory.
Hail!  life-giving Cross, unconquerable trophy of the true faith, door to Paradise, succor the faithful, rampart set about the Church.

(Stichera of Great Vespers for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross)

 

At the very midpoint of Great Lent we venerate the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.  If we have in any way taken up the cross of asceticism in obedience to the Church and in reaction to our over-indulgent surroundings, then by the Third Sunday of Great Lent the purpose of our ascetical efforts - and the very goal of our journey - are brought to our attention:  to stand by the Cross of the Lord as we journey toward Jerusalem and Holy Week. 

The timing is perfect, for by this third Sunday of Great Lent we begin to tire, if not "wear out" with our lenten effort to this point.  However, in our weakness we can find the strength and resolve to continue our journey with enthusiasm, and not simply obligation. This is made possible by the presence of the Cross, not only at the heart and center of Great Lent, but at the heart and center of the biblical revelation; of the entire historical process; of the cosmos; and at the heart and center of the Trinity, as the Lamb of God is slain before the foundation of the world.  

With that in mind, we can chant and sing the appointed hymns cited above, not only as fine examples of Byzantine rhetoric, but as profound insights into the meaning and purpose of the Cross. 

What may appear at first sight as hyperbole or exaggeration in the Church's hymnography, is discovered, upon deeper meditation, to be the search for words and images adequate to the great mystery of the Cross, in itself the inexhaustible wisdom of God as the "breadth and length, and height and depth" of that wisdom which will fill us "with  the fulness of God" (EPH. 3:18-19).  The only response to this Mystery once we begin to assimilate it, is to "bow down" in worship before the Master's Cross in awe and adoration.  

In our liturgical tradition we decorate the Cross with flowers in order to enhance and reveal its inner beauty, as we bring the Cross in solemn procession into the midst of the church for veneration.  The decorated Cross is one way of trying to capture the paradoxical nature of the Cross.

For in no way is the Church trying to cover up the horror and brutality of crucifixion as one of the most  perverse and twisted means of humanity's sinful capacity to inflict pain and humiliation on others.  Here is the dark side of human nature at its most lethal.  This is all clearly beneath the surface in the Gospels and their restrained and sober narrative of the Lord dying on the Cross.  And it is on Golgotha "when they had crucified him" (MATT. 27:35) that we can begin to understand why the Lord "cried with a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, la'ma sabach'-tha'ni' that is 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (MATT. 27:46).  It is in and through this cry of solidarity with suffering humanity while lifted up on the Cross that we never soften or "sing away" the horror of the Cross.  We respect what it meant for the Lord to ascend the Cross. A clear-sighted realism demands that of us.

Yet, Christ is our Passover, the Lamb of God "who takes away the sin of the world" (JN. 1:29).  On the Cross, as the sinless Son of God, Christ absorbs and takes upon Himself all of that sin in order to overcome it from within.  He died on the Cross, but death had no hold over Him. He died for the life of the world and its salvation. By His obedience to the will of the Father,  Christ destroys death by death.

For this reason, when we venerate the Cross we simultaneously glorify the Lord's "holy Resurrection." It is on the Cross that Christ is victorious, not in spite of the Cross. The Son glorifies the Father precisely while lifted up on the Cross. "I call Him King, because I see Him crucified," said St. John Chrysostom. 

As we sing at every Liturgy after having received the Body and Blood of Christ: "for through the Cross joy has come into the world."  That is an incredible claim, but through faith we understand that claim as the very heart of the Gospel, the "good news" that life has overcome death "once and for all."  Whenever we taste of that joy, we taste of the glory of the Kingdom of God. Perhaps here we discover the paradoxical nature of a decorated Cross:  the ultimate sign of defeat and death has become the "unconquerable trophy of the true faith."  Or, as the Apostle Paul has declared:  "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (I COR. 1:18).

The Lord taught us:  "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (MK. 8:34).  These words challenge us to never be content with being passive observers of the Cross, but rather active participants in the life of self-denial and co-suffering love that are implied in taking up the Cross.

This further means that by our very vocation as Christians, we are "cross-bearers" and not simply "cross-wearers."  It is one thing to wear a cross, and another thing to bear a cross.

Of course it is a good thing that Christians do wear a cross.  This is something of a identity badge that reveals that we are indeed Christians, but this worn cross is certainly not another piece of jewelry - Byzantine, three-barred, Celtic or Ethiopian!  By wearing a cross we are saying in effect:  I am a Christian, and therefore I belong to the Crucified One, who is none other than the "Lord and Master of my life."  My ultimate allegiance is to Him, and to no other person or party. With the Apostle Paul, I also confess:  "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel:  it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith ..." (ROM. 1:16).

Such a confession already takes us way beyond passively being a "cross-wearer" to actively being a "cross-bearer."  Dying to sin in Baptism makes the impossible possible.   And with a faith in Christ that is ever-deepening in maturity, we can further exclaim with the great Apostle:  "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (GAL. 5:24).

The Third Sunday of Great Lent - The Adoration of the Life-Giving Cross - reveals, I believe, that here is something that makes Lent potentially great.  Here are reasons that make taking Lent seriously a worthy and noble endeavor.  We are slowly learning to be Cross-bearers, and in the process transforming the simple profession "I am a Christian," into a powerful confession of Faith.

 

The Cross: 'To Refresh Our Souls and Encourage Us'

Dear Parish Faithful,

The Third Sunday of Great Lent - the Sunday of the Cross - must take on a greater resonance for us as we continue to struggle with the ever-encroaching presence of the coronavirus. 

 

Of course, our church services are severely limited and most of you will find yourselves at home on Sunday morning. But during that time, everyone should take a conscious break away from the internet, from our smartphones and from our televisions and turn to the Gospel and prayer. 

 

As I continue to say, the Gospel reveals the "big picture" about life and death. For the Lord transformed an instrument of death into a path to life everlasting. As a nation, we are collectively taking up a cross despite our unwillingness to put our current crisis in that language. The Cross of Christ has no place whatsoever in a society enamored with a sense of entitlement and the guarantee of a "good life." (In a secular society can there even be a source to this entitlement and this guarantee of a good life?). 

 

Yet, as Christians, we claim to be "cross-bearers," as opposed to simply being "cross-wearers." We trust in the Lord and place ourselves in His hands. We continue to pray for a swift end to this pandemic. And yet, the future days, weeks and months ahead of us remain an unsettling prospect of further disorientation. So, let us make room for the Cross and Resurrection to fill in the "big picture."

The following meditation from a few years ago, is meant to focus our attention on Christ as we journey further into Great Lent and the great culmination of the Cross and Resurrection. This is our hope and our joy!

_____

The Cross: 'To Refresh Our Souls and Encourage Us'

 

Dear Parish Faithful and Friends in Christ, 

“Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection, we glorify.”

This hymn – together with the accompanying rite of venerating the Cross – replaces the usual Trisagion hymn during the Divine Liturgy on the Third Sunday of Great Lent. According to The Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion and Pentecostarion, the full title of this mid-lenten commemoration is “The Sunday of the Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross.” Notice, that though our concentration is on the Cross of our Lord, the hymn culminates with the Resurrection.  This is in full agreement with the Gospel passages in which Christ reveals to His disciples that He is bound for Jerusalem and death on the Cross and that He will rise on the third day. (MK. 8:31; 9:31; 10:34)

  

In a wonderful commentary, The Synaxarion sets before our spiritual sight the meaning of this particular commemoration and its timing: 

The precious and Life-Giving Cross is now placed before us to refresh our souls and encourage us who may be filled with a sense of bitterness, resentment, and depression.  The Cross reminds us of the Passion of our Lord, and by presenting to us His example, it encourages us to follow Him in struggle and sacrifice, being refreshed, assured and comforted. [p. 78]

Hopefully, the first three weeks of the Fast – even if we have truly “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” [Galatians 5:24] – have not led us to experience “bitterness, resentment and depression!”  However, we could be suffering from precisely those spiritual wounds for other reasons and diverse circumstances in our lives, both external and internal.  My own pastoral experience tells me that this is probably – if not assuredly – the case.  And there is no better time than Great Lent to acknowledge this.  Such acknowledgment could lead to genuine healing if pursued in a patient and humble manner.

How, then, can we be healed?  Perhaps the Sunday of the Cross reveals our basic starting point.  The Cross of our Lord, placed before our vision, can release us from our bondage to these passions when we realize that Christ transformed this instrument of pain, suffering and death into an “emblem of victory.”  Christ has absorbed and taken our sins upon Himself, nailing them to the Cross. In the process, “He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in Him" -- or, in some variations, “in it,” meaning the Cross [Colossians 2:15].  These “principalities and powers” continue to harass us to this day, but if we are “in Christ,” then we can actualize His victory over them and reveal their actual powerlessness.  Our lenten journey is leading us to the foot of the Cross and to the empty and life-giving tomb, and the Third Sunday of Great Lent anticipates our final goal so as to encourage us.  Again, from The Synaxarion:

As they who walk on a long and hard way are bowed down by fatigue find great relief and strengthening under the cool shade of a leafy tree, so do we find comfort, refreshment, and rejuvenation under the Life-Giving Cross, which our Holy Fathers 'planted' on this Sunday.  Thus, we are fortified and enabled to continue our Lenten journey with a light way, rested and encouraged. [p. 79]

Certainly none of the above is meant to deflect our attention away from the “scandal of the Cross” by poeticizing this scandal away in pious rhetoric.  We must never lose sight of the sufferings of our Lord on the Cross, and the “price” He paid to release us from bondage to sin and death.  The world in its indifference will never come to understand the enormity of Christ’s sacrifice.  So as not to lose sight of the utter horror of crucifixion as a form of capital punishment, I would like to include a passage from Martin Hengel’s book Crucifixion:

Crucifixion satisfied the primitive lust for revenge and the sadistic cruelty of individual rulers and of the masses.  It was usually associated with other forms of torture, including at least flogging.  At relatively small expense and to great public effect the criminal could be tortured to death for days in an unspeakable way.  Crucifixion is thus a specific expression of the inhumanity dormant within men which these days is expressed, for example, in the call for the death penalty, for popular justice and for harsher treatment of criminals, as an expression of retribution.  It is a manifestation of trans-subjective evil, a form of execution which manifests the demonic character of human cruelty and bestiality. [p. 87]

So much for the “noble simplicity and greatness” of the ancient world - and the contemporary world, for that matter!  But there is “nothing new under the sun,” and fallen human nature is just as cruel and evil today.  Again, Christ absorbed all of that human cruelty and bestiality on the Cross.  This was a scandal, for the Son of God died the death of a slave on the Cross [Philippians 2:8].  Now, as a “new creation” in Christ, we must of course manifest our freedom from precisely that dark and demonic abyss into which human beings can plunge, and manifest the transfiguration of our human “energy” into the virtues that are so wonderfully revealed in the lives of the saints.  This was the prayer of the Apostle Paul when the light of the crucified and risen Lord began to shine in a world of darkness: 

May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us [or you] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [Colossians 1:14]

The Church understands and will put before our gaze the sufferings of the Lord during Holy Week.  But it is also from within the Church that we come to know the victory of Christ achieved through His death on the Cross and fully revealed in His Resurrection.  Thus the marvelous paradox of venerating a “Life-Giving Cross!”  The rhetoric of the Church’s language is thereby not empty but revelatory of a mystery that has been accomplished in our midst.  The Synaxarion concludes its section on “The Sunday of the Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross” with the following prayer, a fitting way, I hope, to conclude this meditation: 

O Christ our God, through the power of the Holy Cross, deliver us from the influence of our crafty enemy and count us worthy to pass with courage through the course of the forty days and to venerate Thy divine Passion and Thy Life-Giving Resurrection.  Be merciful to us, for Thou alone art good and full of love for mankind.  Amen.

The Powerful 'Rhetoric' of the Word of the Cross

Dear Parish Faithful,

"Looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (HEB. 12:2)

Just yesterday, Presvytera Deborah and I were discussing the use of rhetoric in the Church's hymnography in general, and more specifically as applied to the Veneration of the Cross - the theme that fills the services during this week following the Third Sunday of Great Lent.

The vast majority of our hymnography was produced during the Byzantine era of the Church's historical pilgrimage, and rhetoric within that culture was treated as a genuine art form. The rhetorician or orator was a person who could speak well and effectively. St. John Chrysostom - the "Golden-Mouthed" - comes readily to mind.

The Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos may just be the high point in the use of rhetoric liturgically, for it is considered by many to be the "masterpiece" of Byzantine liturgical poetry. This is important to bear in mind, because in our contemporary discourse, the very word "rhetoric" often carries a rather negative connotation, meaning that rhetoric implies pompous, pretentious or even bombastic verbiage. As in: "What a bunch of empty rhetoric!" Or, in the more moderate definition found in Webster's Dictionary: "insincere and grandiloquent language."

However, on the positive side, the effective use of rhetoric is meant to heighten, dramatize, or persuasively embellish the use of language to not only catch our attention, but to emphasize the importance of what is being conveyed in a given discourse, or more pointedly for our purpose, in the hymnography of the Church. We have, within the Church, a veritable treasury of rich, strikingly beautiful hymns that are simultaneously very profound theologically. Poetic theology can be much more attractive and effective as a learning tool than a lengthy, and perhaps, dry theological treatise!

Be that as it may, we need to think through carefully the often rhetorical language used in our hymnography. And a prime example of that may be right now when we praise the Cross of Christ throughout this week. I sent out some very rich hymns yesterday dedicated to the Cross in a short Lenten reflection. I even described - rather rhetorically! - the final hymn that I included as "an ecstatic expression of the inexpressible boundlessness of the Cross." Once more:

Rejoice, O tree of life, the destroyer of hell!
Rejoice, O joy of the world, the slayer of corruption!
Rejoice, O power that scatters demons!

As Orthodox Christians, we believe every word expressed "rhetorically" in that hymn. The victory achieved by Christ on the Cross is veritably cosmic and all-encompassing in scope. The demons, corruption and hell itself have been vanquished by the Cross of the Lord. Yet, in the Gospel read on the Third Sunday of Great Lent, Christ taught his disciples - and us through them - "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (MK. 8:34)

The words of the Lord are direct and unembellished. This is effective, because the message is sober, if not stark. There is no rhetorical flourish. Nothing to hide or soften the "blow" of those words. The disciple of Christ must be a "cross-bearer." There is no other way, according to Christ.

That cross can be heavy - perhaps too heavy at times. When a serious illness comes to ourselves or our loved ones; when death itself invades the tranquility of our homes or relationships; when we feel abandoned or betrayed by a friend during a difficult time; when we realize that some form of suffering is the only way to cross over an abyss that opens up in our lives, demanding our undivided attention and focus; then any rich rhetorical flourish may not be effective in the moment or span of that crisis.

When one is suffering, it may not come to our mind to heartily sing out: "Rejoice, O life-giving Cross!" Or to speak of the "holy Cross with joy." At least not immediately, one would think. We are who we are.

In his book The Lenten Spring, Fr. Thomas Hopko has written:

It is not enough for us to bow down before the Cross, and to decorate and venerate and kiss it at church services. Christians must take up the Cross in their own lives. We must be co-crucified with Christ in order to share His glory and to experience even in this world, the beauty and power, the peace and joy of the Kingdom of God. (p. 146) 

Fr. Hopko states further that "the Cross of Christ is 'the law of Lent'."


And St. Innocent, in his wonderful missionary book, The Indication of the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, writes the following:

A Christian's ... duty is to take up his cross. The word cross means sufferings, sorrows and adversities. To take up one's cross means to bear without grumbling everything unpleasant, painful, sad, difficult and oppressive that may happen in life.... 

Interior crosses are sometimes so burdensome that the sufferer can find no consolation whatever in anything. All this can happen to you too! But in whatever position you may be, and whatever sufferings of the soul you may feel, do not despair and do not think that the Lord has abandoned you. NO! God will always be with you and will invisibly strengthen you even when it seems to you that you are on the very brink of destruction.

Consoling words, indeed, from a great saint of the Church.

A painful disconnect between the rhetorical richness of the Church's praise of the Cross, and the immediate conditions of our lives is a real possibility. Something we can readily and honestly acknowledge. I would simply say that from within the life of the Church we are presented with an all-encompassing "big picture" that always reminds us that Jesus is Christus Victor - the Victorious Christ who defeated the powers of the demons, corruption and hell on the Life-giving wood of the Tree (of Life) and then in His Resurrection from the dead. That is the unmovable backdrop to our own personal crosses. And this done with an arsenal of rhetoric as "an ecstatic expression of the inexpressible boundlessness of the Cross."

Perhaps this will help us overcome the despair that St. Innocent so realistically alluded to. The Cross of Christ imparts meaning to the crosses that we bear. For this reason the Apostle Paul could exclaim that the "word of the cross ... is the power of God" (I COR. 1:18).

The paradox of the Cross will always be with us: the sign of suffering and death, and simultaneously of the mysterious wisdom of God. We express that paradox at every Liturgy with the sung or chanted words: "Through the Cross joy has come into the world." And this is the uniqueness of our Christian faith.

The Church is revealed as a second Paradise,
possessing the Tree of Life as the first Paradise of old.
By touching the Cross, O Lord,
we share Your immortality!
(Third Sunday Matins)

The Culmination of our Lenten Effort

Dear Parish Faithful,

GREAT LENT - The Twenty-third Day

At the Presanctified Liturgy last Wednesday evening, we began with a series of transitional hymns, that in addition to reminding us that we have reached the midpoint of the Fast, combine our own ascetical effort - and the need for its continuation for the remainder of the Fast - with clear reference to the Lord and Cross that is the culmination of His earthly ministry:

The fast, the source of blessings,
now has brought us midway through its course.
Having pleased God with the days that have passed
we look forward to making good use of the days to come,
for growth in blessings bring forth even greater achievements.
While pleasing Christ, the giver of blessings, we cry:
O Lord, who fasted and endured the cross for our sake,
make us worthy to share blamelessly in Your paschal victory,
by living in peace and rightly giving glory to You
with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

O Cross, boast of the apostles,
surrounded by archangels, powers and principalities;
Save us from all harm who bow down before you.
Enable us to fulfill the divine course of abstinence
and to reach the day of salvation, by which we are saved.

And there are hymns that are something of an ecstatic expression of the inexpressible boundlessness of the Cross' meaning on a cosmic and personal level:

Today, as we bow before the cross of the Lord, we cry:
Rejoice, O tree of life, the destroyer of hell!
Rejoice, O joy of the world, the slayer of corruption!
Rejoice, O power that scatters demons!
O invincible weapon, confirmation of the faithful:
Protect and sanctify those who kiss you!

The Cross is the culmination of our journey through Holy Week. Practically speaking, that must in turn be the culmination of our lenten effort, or else the sacred forty days and Holy Week will be reduced to empty forms devoid of spiritual power. "Lay aside all earthly care" during Holy Week. Try and plan your schedules so as to maximize your time in church for the services that will bring us to the Cross and Resurrection. Even when unable to be in church, let it be a time of greater silence and concentration, so that empty distractions are kept to a minimum. If possible, use a "vacation day" from work and make Holy Friday a time to immerse yourselves into the Mystery of the Cross. If your children are home on Holy Friday, direct them toward the Church and the "solemnity" of that unique day. In a world that offers us an abundance of the superficially attractive, resist such temptation by focusing on the essential - "the one thing needful" - Jesus Christ.

The Mid-Point, The Turning Point... The One Thing Needful

Dear Parish Faithful,

GREAT LENT: The Twenty Second Day

"For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (I COR. 2:2)

There is a definite shift in focus once we reach the Third Sunday of Great Lent and the veneration of the Cross. For the first three weeks of the Fast, the hymnography of the Triodion concentrates our attention on the over-all lenten effort of repentance, and all that repentance entails: overcoming temptation and sin, struggling against the passions, intensifying our prayer, almsgiving and fasting, reconciliation with our neighbor, etc. 

 

This is not a pious form of spiritual solipsism. It is a way to force us to look at our own lives and relationship with God and to "expose" our own weaknesses and failings, so we can humbly acknowledge our sinfulness and "do something about it." That is one of the main purposes behind Great Lent: "Save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved," according to St. Seraphim of Sarov. If we could possibly cleanse our own minds and hearts, then each one of us can become a genuine Christian who worthily proclaims the Gospel by a particular way of life that embodies the precepts of the Gospel. That includes the self-denial of taking up one's cross in imitation of the Lord.

However, with the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, the Scriptures and the Triodion will concentrate on the Cross of Christ - the goal of our lenten journey. Our lenten effort must be understood and experienced within the context of the Lord's Cross, without which all of our ascetical and charitable efforts do not transcend their immediate application and do indeed devolve into a series of questionable "spiritual exercises" performed more or less for their own sake. The Cross is the source, ground, and goal of Great Lent and of our personal journey through it. We now begin to anticipate its salvific power in our midst. 

 

At the same time, we never lose sight of the fact that we are moving toward Pascha and the glorious Resurrection of Christ. The profound "connection" between the Cross and Resurrection is always affirmed. This is perfectly expressed in the well-known that we sing and chant as we venerate the Cross:

Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection, we glorify.

And, there is the remarkable prayer said after Communion: 

Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only Sinless One ... For, behold, through the Cross joy has come into all the world.

Yet, if we anticipate once again the joyous ecstasy of beholding the empty tomb, we must first stand at the foot of the Cross on Golgotha: "looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before hi, endured the cross." (Heb 12:2) 

At the Presanctified Liturgy on Wednesday evening, we began with a series of transitional hymns, that in addition to reminding us that we have reached the midpoint of the Fast, combine our own ascetical effort - and the need for its continuation for the remainder of the Fast - with clear reference to the Lord and Cross that is the culmination of His earthly ministry:

The fast, the source of blessings,
now has brought us midway through its course.
Having pleased God with the days that have passed
we look forward to making good use of the days to come,
for growth in blessings bring forth even greater achievements.
While pleasing Christ, the giver of blessings, we cry:
O Lord, who fasted and endured the cross for our sake,
make us worthy to share blamelessly in Your paschal victory,
by living in peace and rightly giving glory to You
with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

O Cross, boast of the apostles,
surrounded by archangels, powers and principalities;
Save us from all harm who bow down before you.
Enable us to fulfill the divine course of abstinence
and to reach the day of salvation, by which we are saved.

And there are hymns that are something of an ecstatic expression of the inexpressible boundlessness of the Cross' meaning on a cosmic and personal level:

Today, as we bow before the cross of the Lord, we cry:
Rejoice, O tree of life, the destroyer of hell!
Rejoice, O joy of the world, the slayer of corruption!
Rejoice, O power that scatters demons!
O invincible weapon, confirmation of the faithful:
Protect and sanctify those who kiss you!

The Cross is the culmination of our journey through Holy Week. Practically speaking, that must in turn be the culmination of our lenten effort, or else the sacred forty days and Holy Week will be reduced to empty forms devoid of spiritual power. 

 

"Lay aside all earthly care" during Holy Week. Try and plan your schedules so as to maximize your time in church for the services that will bring us to the Cross and Resurrection. Even when unable to be in church, let it be a time of greater silence and concentration, so that empty distractions are kept to a minimum. 

 

If possible, use a "vacation day" from work and make Holy Friday a time to immerse yourselves into the Mystery of the Cross. If your children are home on Holy Friday, direct them toward the Church and the "solemnity" of that unique day. 

 

In a world that offers us an abundance of the superficially attractive, resist such temptation by focusing on the essential - "the one thing needful" - Jesus Christ.