Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord
By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev
By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
On the Sunday before the Exaltation and on the Sunday after the Exaltation, the Holy Church directs our attention to the meaning of the Cross of the Lord, as well as to those crosses that each of us must bear, whether we desire it or not.
In the Gospel read at the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday after the Exaltation, the Holy Church reveals to us the meaning of the Christian struggle: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).
Taking up our own cross, denying ourselves in our sinful and defiled state, and following after the Lord — these are the foundations of the Christian struggle that the Church reveals to us today and in which she considers it necessary to strengthen us once again on this day following the feast.
What, then, does our labor consist of? First of all, in taking up our cross. And if you wish to walk the path of this labor, then take precisely the cross that the Lord has given you. Yet almost every one of us is dissatisfied with his own cross. How often we complain about it and say to ourselves: “I will do anything, just not this.” One who has no family complains that it is difficult for him to be alone, while another longs to escape from his family circumstances; the sick complain about their health, while those in good health sometimes say: “If only I could become sick!”
This happens because, in most cases, we do not possess a truly Christian life, but live by an “ideological” Christianity that cannot help us bear our cross.
In order to acquire a truly Christian life, we must come to Christ, follow Him, and learn from Him: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Then the yoke will be good, the burden of the cross will become light, and we will enter upon the path of true Christian labor, because, as one of the Holy Fathers tells us: “Having attached yourself to those who possess this life, you yourself become one who does not merely reason or preach, but acts.”
If our labor consists in taking up our cross, then it is not enough for us to know that a Christian needs a cross; we must also bear it and walk with it along the Lord’s path.
How, then, are we to bear our cross? The Holy Fathers say that for this we must first of all arm ourselves with patience, and patience, according to the words of Saint John Climacus, “is preparing oneself for the expectation of daily sorrow.” Such a disposition is a pledge that a person will struggle and will not fall. It is like a person going forth to battle: he is prepared to walk the narrow path and endure every kind of hardship.
But it is not enough for us to know that patience is the expectation of every sorrow, that patience is the narrow path. We must also understand the sources of the sorrows that we encounter in our lives. And patience can teach us this as well, because it is “the rejection of self-justification and the accusation of oneself.” If sorrow befalls me, I must not blame others for it or justify myself by saying that if it were not for this or that person, I would not be suffering. “Accept everything as happening because of your own fault,” the Holy Fathers say. And we must have patience not merely in words, not merely as an idea, but in life; we must make it the guiding rule of our lives.
Patience is a necessary condition without which we cannot bear the cross given to us by the Lord. But what, then, is our actual cross? It is not, of course, the fact that we are often in church and stand through long services. For the Church is “earthly heaven”; it is the place where we prepare ourselves for heavenly life. But there is also the earth to which God has sent us, and which we so often forget.
And if at times it is difficult for us to pray, and if, while standing in church, we do not feel that we are in earthly heaven, this is because we are not preparing ourselves for it in our lives, because on the earth to which the Lord has sent us, we have not truly borne the cross that the Lord has given us.
Where, then, is our true cross? First of all, in the humble awareness of our sins and, with the help of grace, but also through the participation of our own efforts, in overcoming them. And, secondly, in bearing the malice, envy, and sins of all those around us who are our neighbors.
The struggle against all this, a struggle to the death, is the true bearing of our cross.
This struggle begins with what lives within us, in our soul. For if the Kingdom of God is within us, then all the filth of sin is within us as well. Do not look around you, but remember your own soul. The crucifixion of our soul with all its passions and desires, and the continual purification of ourselves before the Lord—this is one side of our cross. The other consists in overcoming sin in the people around us. Seeing their sins, we must regard them as sick people who require healing, and we must carry out this healing with meekness and patience.
The Holy Fathers said: “If you think to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye, do not use a beam for this purpose, but heal him with meekness and longsuffering” (Saint John Climacus). The beam is harsh treatment and sharp words.
Very often we ourselves do not bear our cross, but through our harshness we contribute to those around us casting aside their crosses as well. This applies above all to our families, to our brothers and sisters according to the flesh, and to our brothers and sisters in salvation in our church. How often we see precisely these beams! A beam can be answered with iron, and iron can then be answered with verbal murder. And we ourselves are responsible when those close to us cast aside their crosses.
But the Lord requires an entirely different attitude toward our neighbors. What does it matter that another person has sinned? Do you not sin as well? Why, then, do you strike him rather than have compassion on him? He has already done so much harm to himself. If we truly believe in Christ and in His Cross, then “take up your cross and help those around you bear their crosses” are not merely empty words for us. Much depends upon our attitude toward those around us. Saint John Climacus says that one wolf, with the help of the demon, can disturb the whole flock, while one brother, with the help of an angel, can guide an entire ship.
This instruction is not being given so that you will listen to it, tell your neighbors about it, and end there. That would be empty talk. Let us, precisely now, as we venerate the Cross, look around us and look into our own souls, and little by little begin to bear our cross: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Let us begin at least a little to do, rather than to speak. Let us begin at least by humbling ourselves and remaining silent when we are insulted. Every evening, when we read the prayer of Saint John Chrysostom, we ask: “Lord, grant me humility,” and this means, “Send me a person who will humble me.”
Walking the path of cross-bearing, we must take upon ourselves not only our own cross, but also the crosses of those around us who are our neighbors.
Bearing each of our crosses with humility and meekness, let us, in patience, reject every form of self-justification and be attentive to ourselves. Then, not merely in words but in deed, we will understand what the great commandment of the Lord means: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
