Hebrews 4:14-5:6; Mark
8:34-9:1
Today we venerate the precious and lifegiving Cross upon which Christ offered Himself for the salvation of the world purely out of love for those enslaved to the fear of death, which He conquered through His glorious resurrection on the third day. Contrary to popular opinion, the Cross is not the sign of a civil religion that grants spiritual sanction to any power structure of this world. Neither is it a magical good luck charm that makes all our problems go away or gives us what we want on our own terms. It is certainly not a means of escape from the daily struggles of living faithfully or a way of demonstrating our superiority over any person or group. In fact, the Cross of Christ is the complete opposite of such distortions, for it stands in radical judgment of those who would attempt to use religion to help them seek first the things of this world, such as power, pleasure, and possessions. 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) Those who place loyalty to empires, nations, or other earthly projects before faithfulness to Christ will end up rejecting Him as surely as those who nailed Him to the Cross. As He said, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
On this Sunday of the Adoration
of the Holy Cross, right in the middle of Lent, we do the complete opposite of
making any type of success in this world 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. The Cross
is truly the Tree of Life through which we return to the blessedness of
Paradise. It is “a weapon of peace and a
trophy invincible” that even the high and mighty of this world cannot defeat.
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. When we forgive our
enemies and welcome the stranger, we bear witness to the merciful
lovingkindness of our Lord. These are
the most basic disciplines of the Christian life, and we all must practice them
in order to gain the spiritual health necessary to take up our crosses,
especially in response to the deep challenges of our lives and the appealing temptations
to apostasy and paganism that are all around us today, including distortions of
Christianity that have no place for a Lord Who reigns from a Cross and an empty
tomb.
If we refuse to deny ourselves
even in small ways this Lent, then we will demonstrate where our true loyalties
lie and 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 earthly
power and glory. Indeed, we will be even more guilty because we know that His
Cross is not a sign of ultimate defeat to be repudiated, but of nothing less
than the salvation of the world.
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 satisfy our lust for any earthly or
self-centered goal, no matter how popular or appealing. If we do not actually take up our crosses and
deny ourselves out of love for God and neighbor, then our lives will bear
witness that our true lord is someone or something other than Jesus
Christ. St. Paul taught that “those who
are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Gal.
5:24) If we are not embracing the struggle to do so, then we must humbly call
for the Lord’s mercy from the depths of our souls as we learn to take the steps
necessary to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. There is simply no other way to enter into
the joy of His Kingdom.
Whether in the first century or
today, salvation has not come to the world through self-centered addiction to
the pursuit of power, possessions, and pleasure. It does not come through the achievements of
the wealthy, powerful, and popular people of the world. The same kind of spiritual depravity that drove
religious and political leaders to crucify Him is still very much with us. When we live as those who are ashamed of the
way of the Cross, we show that we are not that much different from them. As we continue our Lenten journey, let us confess
how we have fallen short of fulfilling the high calling that is ours in Christ
and learn to 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 the salvation of the
world purely out of love.
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