Whether someone believes in Him or not, no one can deny that Jesus Christ is the central personality of all human history. Look at the overwhelming response to Mel Gibson’s Passion movie in the last year. Anti- Christian professors and writers proclaimed how “non-historical” the Gospel accounts really are and that therefore the movie was based on falsehood; Jewish interest groups gravely predicted “anti-Semitic violence”; reviewers who normally love the most disgusting screen violence were suddenly concerned that the violence in this movie would be “too graphic.” Then the movie was finally released, and so many people have seen it that in a few months it has grossed hundredes of millions of dollars in America and Europe alone. Whether someone hates the movie or loves it, it is proving to be the most significant cultural event in decades. The reason is that whether someone loves Jesus Christ or hates Him, everyone has to face Him and answer the question, “Whom do you say that I am?”
We answer Him clearly this month when we venerate the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, the Instrument of our Salvation, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross, which takes place on the 14th of September on the Church calendar (this year - Monday, September 27th NS). By attending the divine services, and coming forward to bow down and kiss the Cross, we re-affirm our faith in Christ’s saving death for our salvation, declare our gratitude for what He has done for us, and make known our complete confidence in His victory over sin, the devil, death, and hell. We also invoke the power of the Cross as an invincible defense against the devil. By blessing the four directions of the earth with the Cross every year on this day, the bishops and priests annually claim the entire cosmos for Christ, for all creation has been ransomed from the usurper, the devil, by the death of Jesus the Son of God on the Cross.
After we affirm our faith in the power of the Cross in the divine services, we must also continue to proclaim the Cross by our daily piety. How frequently, and how carefully, for example, do we make the Sign of the Cross? When we awake, before we sleep, before and after we eat, before and after studies or work, in moments of danger, in moments of tempation, in moments of sickness, in moments of gratitude, in moments of anxiety, we should carefully and attentively make the Sign of the Cross. This simple but great action invites the power of the Saving Sacrifice of Christ into our lives, seals us by the Name of the All-Holy Trinity, and guards us against every evil influence. It also proclaims our faith to those around us.
Note that it is important to sign ourselves with the Cross carefully and attentively. When we make our Cross carelessly, waving our hands as though we were swatting flies or shaking our fingers in the vicinity of the chest as if we were playing the mandolin, this is not pleasing to God and gives malignant joy to the devil. It takes what should be a most sacred action and makes it into an act of irreverence. Therefore, one of the first things to teach our children, and something that we need to constantly remind ourselves of, is to make the Sign of the Cross correctly, completely, and consciously. We place the thumb together with the forefinger and middle finger of the right hand, place the other two fingertips in the palm, and then sign ourselves, touching the forehead, belly, right shoulder, and left shoulder, saying (aloud or silently), “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Let us, then, daily recall the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and render thanks to Him for this great Gift that cannot possibly be repaid. Let us hasten to the holy house of God on the Feast of the Cross this month and venerate the Cross with holy fear and reverence. Let us daily make the Sign of the Cross frequently, teaching our chlidren to do the same, as a remembrance of the Lord’s Sacrifice in daily life, as invincible protection against the devil, and as a proclamation of our Fatith. The Lord has done everything for us, even to shedding His Precious Blood upon the Cross. Let us respond to Him with all our hearts.
Glory to Thy Precious Cross, O Lord!
On the day of the Holy Cross are commemorated two events connected with the Precious Cross of Christ: the first, the finding of the Cross on Golgotha, and the second, the returning of the Cross to Jerusalem from Persia.
Staying in the Holy Land, the holy Empress Helena decided to look for the Precious Cross of the Lord. An old Jew called Judah was the only person who knew the whereabouts of the Cross, and, under pressure from the Empress, he revealed that the Cross was buried under the temple of Aphrodite that the Emperor Adrian had built on Golgotha. The Empress ordered that this idolatrous temple be pulled down, and then, digging deep below it, she found three crosses. While the Empress was in uncertainty about how to recognze which cross was the Lord’s, a funeral procession passed by. Then Patriarch Makarios told them to place the crosses one by one on the dead man. When they placed the first and second on him, the dead man remained unchanged, but when they placed the third on him, he was restored to life. By this, they knew that this was the Precious and Life-giving Cross of Christ.
Later, the Persian King Chozroes conquered Jerusalem, took the people into slavery, and carried the Cross off to Persia, where it remained for fourteen years. In 628, the Emperor Heraklios defeated Chozroes and brought the Cross back to Jerusalem with great ceremony. Entering the city, Heraklios was carrying the cross on his back but suddenly was unable to take another step. Patriarch Zacharias saw an angel directing the Emperor to take off his imperial robes and walk beneath the Cross along the way that Christ had walked, barefoot and humiliated as He had been. He passed this vision on to the Emperor, who stripped himself of his raiment and, in poor clothing and barefoot, took up the Cross, carried it to Golgotha, and placed it in the Church of the Resurrection, to the joy and consolation of the whole Christian world.
- Prologue for 14 September