Hebrews
4:14-5:6; Mark
8:34-9:1
We
do not have to look very closely at dominant trends in our culture today for
signs that many people are offering their lives for the service of false gods,
regardless of how they identify themselves religiously. The evidence of their idolatry is not primarily
in where they congregate to worship, but in how they seek first the things of
this world, such as possessions, power, and pleasure, and in how they hate and
condemn those whom they perceive to stand in the way of their acquiring them. That was the mindsight of the corrupt
religious leaders who called for the Lord’s crucifixion because they perceived
Him as a threat to their self-centered agendas.
It was also the perspective of the Romans who believed that worshiping
their many gods protected their empire.
By having “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” written in Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin on the Cross, Pontius Pilate did not miss the opportunity to let everyone know what happened to those suspected of challenging Roman rule. (Jn. 19:20)
On this Sunday of the Adoration
of the Holy Cross, right in the middle of Lent, we do the complete opposite of
making success in this world, however defined, our highest goal. Today we venerate the Cross on which Jesus
Christ offered Himself for the salvation of the world. Through His crucifixion, the New Adam entered
fully into the misery and wretchedness of the first Adam to the point of death in
order to liberate us from slavery to its corrupting power and make us
participants in eternal life through His glorious resurrection on the third day. The Cross is truly the Tree of Life through
which we return to the blessedness of Paradise.
As
our epistle reading states, our crucified and risen Lord is the “great High
Priest” Who ministers in the heavenly temple, where He intercedes for us
eternally. In order to enter into His
salvation, we must take up our own crosses as we refuse to make any earthly goal
our highest good. Denying ourselves means
putting faithfulness to Him before anything else, including indulging personal
inclinations and desires that hold us back from fulfilling our high calling. Even as common bread and wine are fulfilled
as our Lord’s Body and Blood when offered in the Divine Liturgy, we too are
transformed when we unite ourselves to the High Priestly offering of the Lamb
of God Who takes away the sin of the world.
If we refuse to do so, we will shut ourselves out of the blessedness of His Kingdom, both as a present reality and as a future hope.
We
must not adore the Cross only in religious services, but daily as we take up
our crosses in order to love God with every ounce of our being and our
neighbors as ourselves. The disciplines
of Lent help us gain the strength to do precisely that as we take intentional
steps to die to that which keeps us comfortably enslaved to the self-centered
ways of the first Adam. By devoting
ourselves to prayer, we open our hearts to the Savior and learn experientially that
our life is in Him. By refusing to
gratify our desires for the richest and most sustaining foods, we open
ourselves in humility to receive His strength for resisting deeply ingrained
habits of self-indulgence. When we share our time, energy, and resources
with others, we become more like Christ in offering ourselves for the good of
our neighbors. These are the most basic
disciplines of the Christian life, and we all need to practice them in order to
gain the spiritual health necessary to take up our crosses, especially in
relation to the great challenges of our lives.
If we refuse to deny ourselves
even in small ways this Lent, then we will become even more accustomed to serving
ourselves instead of God and neighbor. Doing so will reveal that we are ashamed of
our Lord and His Cross, and prefer to offer our lives to other gods, especially
ourselves. Even if we continue down that
path to the point that we somehow gain the whole world, we will risk losing our
souls by committing idolatry every bit as much as those who condemned Christ
because He stood in the way of fulfilling their passionate desires for power.
Indeed, we will be even more guilty because we know that His Cross is not a
sign of ultimate defeat to be repudiated, but “a weapon of peace and a trophy
invincible” to be honored.
There is perhaps nothing worse
than distorting our calling as Christians to the point that the Cross becomes
merely an empty symbol that we use to achieve our desire for any earthly goal,
no matter how appealing or noble. If we
do not actually take up our crosses and deny ourselves out of love for God and
neighbor, then we will condemn only ourselves when we use the Cross idolatrously
to justify getting whatever we want personally for ourselves or the factions,
nations, or other groups to which we have given our hearts. Whenever we recognize that we are coming
anywhere close to using the way of Christ to seek the things of this world as
ends in themselves, we must call for the Lord’s mercy from the depths of our
souls as we struggle to embody St. Paul’s teaching that “those who are Christ’s
have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Gal. 5:24)
We adore the Holy Cross today
because it is ultimately a sign of the blessed eternal life that the Savior has
brought to the world through His victory over the corrupting power of sin and
death. As we continue our Lenten
journey, let us offer every dimension of our lives to Him for healing as we
take up our own crosses. Whether in Lent
or any other time, that is the only way to enter into Paradise through our great
High Priest, Who offered Himself fully upon the Cross for our salvation.
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