Saint Tikhon’s Monastery and Seminary
September 14, 2015
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today, as we bow down before the Cross, the wisdom of the world is put to shame by the foolishness of God.
Today, as we exalt this instrument of torture and death as an ensign of life, we testify that the humility of God has triumphed over the hubris of this age.
Today, as we celebrate the autumnal Pascha of the Cross, we proclaim the victory of the love of God over the very grasp of death.
The exaltation of the Cross is a celebration of the paradox of Christianity. The Passion of Christ turns the world upside down. Weakness becomes power. Foolishness becomes wisdom. Death becomes life. Suffering becomes joy. The darkness of hades is filled with the light of the Resurrection. Self-emptying becomes the fulfillment of the human destiny. God becomes man; now, man may become god.
The exaltation of the Cross, the celebration of this divinely-authored paradox, this overturning of every worldly conceit, happens not just once a year, but throughout the life of a Christian, and it happens on at least two levels.
First, the Cross is exalted by the very fact that we, sinful and unworthy though we be, have been granted holy baptism and the possibility of salvation. When we were yet enemies of God, God the Father extended his Right Hand - Christ himself - in friendship. Christ, the Arm of the Father, reached down into the depths of hades, into the depths of sin, in order to rescue us, who are so undeserving of his love.
The very fact that we are permitted to partake of the name “Christian” is a triumph, an exaltation, of the Cross. As Christians, we understand that we have not received this calling because we are better or worthier than others: we are what we are by the grace of God, by the power of the mercy revealed on and through the Cross.
Thus, every time we boldly call on God as “our Father,” this is the exaltation of the Cross. Through Christ’s Crucifixion, we sinners have been adopted as sons of the light and sons of the day, sons of the kingdom that knows no end.
The very fact that I, sinner that I am, am called a “Christian”: this is a proof of the Cross’s potency, a magnification of its strength, an exaltation of its might.
On another level, though, the Cross is also exalted every time we take up our own cross and follow Christ. His Cross is the key that unlocks our salvation, but also the pattern of our life in this world. Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, quoting the Pensées of Blaise Pascal, says that “Jesus is in agony until the end of the world.” Though Christ came down from the Tree and rose from the tomb, whenever we take up our cross and follow him, he is still there, beside us and within us, granting us the grace to bear that cross by virtue of the Cross that he bore unto the end.
In other words, when we accept the sufferings of this life as our cross, as the divinely-appointed path of our self-emptying and salvation, we offer that cross back to Christ as a sweet spiritual fragrance, a whole-burnt offering of ourselves. In this way, we unite our sufferings to the sufferings of Christ, and suffering is no longer mere suffering: it is transfigured into the path of salvation. Our cross becomes our ladder of divine ascent.
Taking up the cross, ascending the ladder - this sounds grand, and indeed, it is the most important task of this life. It is, as I say, the ultimate fulfillment of man’s true destiny. But at the same time it is hidden, mundane, daily, minor, unexciting. The wisdom of the world sees greatness in epic deeds and a name that resounds down through the centuries. The foolishness of the Cross teaches us that true greatness is found in silence, humility, service, and self-abnegation, and that we should rejoice only that our names are written in heaven.
Therefore, as we rightly exalt the Cross today with chant and song, procession and pomp, bouquets and splendor, let us also endeavor to exalt the Cross in ways that seem smaller, but may in fact be greater. Let us strive to give way to our neighbor. Let us strive to bite back words of anger and self-justification. Perhaps most difficult of all, let us learn to flee praise and love criticism. Let us learn to strive with zeal and patience, and to fail with serenity and trust in God. This is the daily exaltation of the Cross, the daily dying with Christ that we might rise with him forever.
As St. Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: “But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. . . . you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” When we accept the grace to die daily to our sins and passions and live to God, the victory of Christ on the Cross is made manifest in our lives: then is the Cross truly exalted.
May he who called us to friendship and sonship when we were yet rebels and enemies of God, Christ our true God, always keep us by the power of his Cross and grant us the grace to take up our cross and follow him: to whom belongs all honor and adoration, together with his Father and the All-holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.