Save as PDFIn the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
Today in the centre of the Church there is the Cross decorated with flowers. This Cross is very beautiful and on it there is bleeding Christ the Saviour. In Christianity nothing can be explained by simple logic, but on the contrary, as philosophers say, everything is antinomic. Any dogma of Orthodoxy can’t be simply logically explained, calculated, it is beyond of practical understanding. And the Lord’s Cross contains the same mystery.
Each of us knows from experience that the Cross has a great power and the majority of Christians are afraid of taking off the cross from the neck for a minute not to deprive himself of its protecting power. We begin and finish a prayer with cross. We consecrate our dwellings, decorate holy vestments and churches. The Cross in itself is remarkably beautiful, has perfect form, but not of its beauty it has such power, but because Christ was crucified on it. And so, when we are gloomy, it’s sufficient for us to look at the Cross of Christ and compare our grief with Christ’s grief, and our grief will seen simply funny for us in comparison with grief He had in His Heart when He saw our sins.
“Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me” (Mt. 10, 38). “No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can’t be my disciple” (Luke 14, 27). Grief is called “Cross” by Christ. Christ doesn’t call to look for suffering. It would be a cruel and senseless call. Only an insane person can strive for suffering. It is a simple evidence of our existence. A person has no choice: to suffer or not to suffer. Suffering enters our life without permission and gives us choice: to take the cup of suffering with patience and humility, or with indignation. Christ calls to take grief which a person has in his life with patience, for “We must all experience many hardships before we enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14, 22).
If Christ’s suffering has expiatory cost for us, then why must every Christian bear his cross? The Cross of Christ is the Life-giving Cross. It sheds gracious power. Our expiation was executed on the Cross. The bearing of the cross leads every Christian to perfect expiation.
Today, on our way home let each of us asks himself a question, “How will I fulfil my Christian duty? Does the Lord live inside me? Do I ask Him to give me this power of faith, this power of spirit? Or do I live colourlessly, inertly, indifferently, aggravated by sins and spiritual dream?” that is what we must think about.
If we really want to fulfil Christ’s will, if we really want to get god’s help, the Lord will send us the Cross of saving. Its power is given to everyone, each of us can get the gift of this grace and rise: to wake up and become many times stronger spiritually. Because Lord saves us by His endless expiatory power. It has been given to us, it has been promised to us! Salvation has been given to us, and only on us does it depend to take and adopt the power of Christ’s Cross, and realize in our life what the Lord has commanded to us. Amen.