The Cross and Passion await at the end of Lent, but they also stand at the center of these Holy Forty Days. The Lenten season is an invitation to pick up our own cross and follow Christ to Golgotha. At the same time, as we stumble under the weight of our cross, we are reminded that we are sustained in our Lenten podvig solely by the grace of God that comes into the world through the Cross of Christ.
The Cross is not merely an aspect of our faith: the Cross is the center of our faith, such that the saints tell us that the very world is cruciform, structured by the Cross of the Lord. Creation, salvation: this is all possible in, through, and for the Cross of the Crucified God, the throne on which he reigns in majesty, the throne from which he judges the world, the throne from which he embraces each of us with his mercy.