Commemoration of the Sign of the Honorable Cross Which Appeared in Heaven, at the Third Hour of the Day, During the Reign of Emperor Constantius, Son of Constantine the Great
By Fr. George Dorbarakis
By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. During the days of Holy Pentecost, on the seventh day of the month of May and around the ninth hour of the morning, the honorable and life-giving Cross appeared — consisting of light, while all the people looked on — stretching from holy Golgotha to the holy Mount of Olives. This Cross, by the brilliance of Its light, overshadowed the rays of the sun. Therefore every age, both young and old, together with infants and even nursing babes, came to the church, and with immeasurable joy and fervent compunction offered glory and thanksgiving to God for this wondrous sight.
2. If September 14 is the feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross — the feast on which human hands, Patriarchal and Imperial, raised up the Honorable Cross, presenting It as the symbol of the Christian faith and “the key of Paradise,” because It is the sign pointing us to Him Who poured out His all-holy blood upon It — then May 7 constitutes another feast of Its Exaltation, not by human hands this time, but by the “hands” of God Himself. For He willed, when the Christian faith had already been accepted and spread abroad, to reveal the Cross in Heaven, as a continuation, we might say, of Its manifestation in the days of Constantine the Great, with the well-known words, “By this conquer.” The hymnography of our Church presents this event and proclaims it in all its dimensions:
“Today the divine multitude of the faithful rejoices. For the heavenly Cross appears over all the earth. The ether shines with inaccessible light. The air beams forth and the face of the earth is beautified. The Church of Christ chants divine hymns. She reverently honors the divine and all-wondrous Cross guarding her from above” (Vesperal Sticheron)
The Holy Hymnographer, the monk John, does not isolate the Honorable Cross as something magical. If It possesses such power, it is because upon It, as we said, our Savior and Lord poured out His blood. And this means: from then on Christ and the Cross always go together. No one can see the Lord apart from His Honorable Cross. Where Christ is, there also is the Cross; and where the Cross is, there also is Christ. What before Christ had been something dishonorable — crucifixion — because of the Lord became the holiest and most beautiful thing in the world. Two pieces of wood, which in themselves mean nothing, formed into the shape of the Cross become “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” The Hymnographer is clear: the Cross always refers us to the Lord.
“Strengthened by its power, let us approach the Master, crying aloud that He may grant peace to the world and enlighten our souls” (Vesperal Sticheron).
The Cross, that is, became a kind of bridge leading us to Heaven.
“Today the all-honorable Cross was seen as a most honorable and glorious ladder, leading from earth to the heavens those who honor it with unwavering faith” (Vesperal Sticheron).
The ecclesiastical poet sees in the appearance of the Cross, first: a wondrous act of God in order to strengthen the faith of Christians, especially of rulers.
“You manifested in a mighty way the power that is in Your Cross, O Savior, strengthening through it even our faithful rulers” (Apolytikion).
“The heavens proclaimed Your glory, O Lord, the dread sign of Your Cross, and all the earth worshipped with fear” (Doxastikon of Vespers).
“You confirmed the faith of Christians by Your immaterial light, O Christ, inscribing the Cross for us” (Ode 4).
Second: he sees the mystical depth of the Cross, through which human beings were united with the angels because upon It the sin of mankind was removed.
“Today mortals rejoice together with the choirs of Angels. For the dividing wall, now removed by the Cross, has clearly united all things into one” (Vesperal Sticheron).
And third: the crushing defeat of the devil through the Cross. After the Lord’s Crucifixion, and of course the Resurrection that followed it, the devil became vanquished and utterly powerless. The devil cannot decisively overpower the believer unless the believer himself gives him strength through spiritual negligence.
“You manifested upon the earth the rays of the Cross, O Lord, by which You cast down the devil and saved the race of men” (Ode 1).
The conclusion of the Hymnographer is more than logical:
“Let the lawless cover their eyes, for they cannot bear the flashing beauty of the Cross” (Ode 6).
On the contrary:
“But let those who know God delight in the radiance of the immaculate Cross, of Him Who in the flesh was nailed upon the wood” (Ode 6).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
