In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
On the third Sunday of Great Lent, the Church places the Cross of the Lord in the middle of the temple. We call this day the Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross. In the middle of the journey of Lent, when a person may feel tired, doubtful, or spiritually struggling, the Church shows us the cross. We have already traveled half the way to Easter. The Holy Fathers said that a person who walks a difficult path through the desert rejoices when he finds a tree under which he can rest. So the Cross of Christ is placed in the middle of Great Lent to give us rest, strength, and hope for the further spiritual struggle.
During the service, the Cross is carried to the middle of the church and remains there for several days. It lies not only in the middle of the church - but, as it were, in the middle of the entire Christian world. The Church shows us the Cross to strengthen us on the journey of Lent.
Today, for a Christian, the cross is a sacred object. We wear it on our chests, place it on the domes of churches, see it on icons and in our homes. But during the Roman Empire, the cross had a completely different meaning.
The cross was an instrument of the greatest humiliation and shame. Slaves and criminals were punished on the cross. People feared the cross and hated it. It was a sign of suffering, curse and death. That is why it is a miracle of God's love that the Lord Jesus Christ accepted the cross.
The Gospel does not describe all the details of this moment. But the Christian spiritual tradition helps us to feel its depth. Many may have seen the film “The Passion of the Christ”. There is a very telling moment in it: Jesus takes the cross, looks at it and touches it tenderly, as if kissing it. This is an artistic image, but it conveys a deep spiritual truth. Christ does not reject the cross, does not curse it, and does not rebel against it. He accepts it with love. And with this acceptance, Christ changes the meaning of the cross. What was a sign of shame and death becomes a sign of salvation and life. Since then, the cross has become the mystery of God's presence in the world.
When we worship before the cross, we do not worship a tree. The Church teaches: we honor holy icons, but we worship only God. Therefore, when we bow our knees before the cross, we worship Christ, who was crucified on it, because it was through the cross that God's greatest love for man was revealed. For the cross, when Jesus accepted it, changed its meaning. Since then, the cross has carried the Mystery of God's presence!
The Cross is also called the tree of life. Once upon a time in paradise there was a tree through which man lost his life. But through the Cross of Christ, humanity regains life and returns to God. That is why the Church says that the Cross is a sign of Christ's victory. a sign of strength, hope and God's love...
In the words of Holy Scripture, we proclaim that the Lord Jesus Christ is the King, Prophet, and High Priest of all creation.
The Lord taught us that in the Christian Church and the Kingdom of God, the king is not the one who subjugates others by force to bring them to unconditional and slavish obedience, but the one who serves others and gives his life for them.
Saint John Chrysostom says that anyone can rule a people, but only a true king can lay down his life for his people, because he identifies himself so much with his people that he has no other existence, no other life, and no other purpose than to serve them with his whole being, and if necessary, even with death.
Before the coming of the king, his standards and signs of power are usually carried. So Christ, preparing His victory over death and resurrection, sends before Him His royal sign - the life-giving Cross. And therefore, worshiping the Cross, we also remember the Passion of Christ.
So today, as we worship the Cross of the Lord, we can understand with new strength what the royal dignity and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ mean... It means a love so complete and perfect that Christ forgets Himself, completely and infinitely, and so identifies Himself with us that He agrees in His humanity to experience even the feeling of distance from God, the Source of life.
He accepts our mortality, our weakness, our human fate.
The high priests of the ancient world offered sacrifices with which they identified themselves only symbolically. But Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice. There was nothing in Him that deserved death. He himself says:
"The prince of this world is coming, but he has nothing in Me."
And Christ says to the Heavenly Father:
“I sanctify myself for them”, that is, I give myself as a sacrifice for people.
Here the bottomless depth of God's love is revealed: Life agrees to be exhausted. Light agrees to be extinguished. Eternity agrees to accept the death of a fallen world.
We can never fully understand what Christ's death on the cross meant. Even our own death cannot help us fully understand it. For how can Immortality die?
But we can gradually learn to understand this love as we try to enter more deeply into the life, teaching, and way of Christ. Then we begin to discover that love that gives itself to the end leads not to destruction, but to resurrection and eternal life.
During Holy Week, especially on Good Friday, the Church stands at the Cross and experiences all that happened on Golgotha as if it were happening before our eyes.
But today, in the midst of Lent, we worship the Cross and remember that in it the mystery of God's presence was revealed. The Cross became the place where God's love for man was revealed. Therefore, the Church sings:
"We worship Your Cross, Lord,
and we glorify Your holy resurrection."
And when we approach the Cross, worship it, and kiss it, we testify to our faith in the One who, through the Cross, defeated death and opened the way to life for people.
Amen
fr. Mykola Buryadnyk
pastor of St. Joseph's parish
