Homily Two on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
Beloved brethren in Christ! We celebrate today the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. When Patriarch Makarios, one and a half thousand years ago, in the presence of Empress Helen and a multitude of people, raised the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, found by the Empress, then the Empress and all the people, looking at it with reverence and as if seeing the Savior hanging on it, all covered in blood and living out the last hours of His suffering life for us in inexpressible torment, fell down with fear and love and cried out with one voice: "Lord have mercy!"
Brothers and sisters in the Lord! Before us now is the Cross of our Savior. Let us remember and imagine, as vividly as we can, the Lord of Glory crucified for us, and let us shed tears for our sins, with which we daily crucify the Lord; let us shed tears for our disobedience to our Savior, for our earthly and material wisdom and disregard for the heavenly, for our many different worldly passions, for the lack of love for God and neighbor, for our self-love and all the other passions that come from it, for our idleness, laziness, and with all our hearts with tears let us say: Lord, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, who poured out Your blood for our salvation, have mercy on us, the weak in faith, the proud, the wicked, the envious, the greedy, the stingy, the peace-lovers, the sensual, the gluttonous, the lazy, the negligent – especially regarding our own salvation, the despondent, the faint-hearted, the murmurers, and turn the hearts of all of us to You, our Life-Giver – that we may love and seek nothing in this world more than You, more than the eternal treasures of Your kingdom, which were purchased for us by Your blood. Lord! Crucify our flesh with Your fear. Lord! Turn our hearts away from worldly allurements. Amen.
Source: Translation by John Sanidopoulos.