The Exaltation of the Cross

In the Orthodox Church, there are three major commemorations of the Cross itself, on August 1, on September 14 and on the third Sunday of the Great Lenten fast.  When you add in other minor festivals and events where the cross figures prominently (including the stavrotheotokia at Vespers on Tuesday and Thursday nights) and also the troparia of the hours on Wednesday and Friday, the Cross is commemorated in Orthodox hymnography and prayers for the entire year.   As St. Paul said, "God forbid that I should glory except in the Cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ."  Our boasting is in an instrument where God humbled His very Self.  No longer is it instrument of torture and death; it is now the means to life itself.  And no longer is it merely a symbol, but it is a weapon.

The Lord Himself used His own Cross as a weapon when He broke down the doors to Hades and lifted up Adam and Eve and the Patriarchs and their descendants from the bondage which kept them.  You can see that in the icon reproduced for this post.  Christ holds His Cross with one hand and with the other reaches out to Adam. 

For us, too, the Cross of our Lord should be a weapon.  It is the weapon which the demons fear and for which they have no countermeasure.  The psalmist says,"The light of thy countenance O Lord, is signed upon us."  And it has been signed on us with the cross which was made upon our heads, hearts, hands, feet when we were baptized and chrismated.  It is a weapon which we all have when we sign ourselves and which we can call upon at any time to fend off the attacks of the evil ones.  We should never fear to use it.

For this reason, and many more, do we then exalt in our Lord's Cross.  Historically, this feast commemorates the retrieval of the Cross from the Sassanids by the Roman Emperor Heraclius I in the 7th century which was then returned to Jerusalem.    Even Heraclius, I would presume, recognized the power of the cross to vanquish enemies of the faith and maybe that is why he set out to retrieve it.  But whatever the historical basis for this feast, we should always rejoice in the cross and make it part of our spiritual arsenal.  Sign yourself with the cross daily and with faith.

The Cross above all shows God's love for His creation

Today, September 14 (Revised Julian), the Holy Orthodox Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross. We began to celebrate this feast starting this past Sunday with the very familiar Gospel reading of John 3:16 and continues for the next week. In all the hymns sung at the Vesperal Liturgy last night (which I grant I am not a fan of), one theme permeated everything: God's Love for His Creation. Yes, there are other themes there such as the Cross being the weapon which deceived the great deceiver, i.e. Satan and how that Cross trampled down death and how it lifts us from the curse and the wages of our sins. But those lessons are only given weight from the foundation of God's love.

When Orthodox Christians make the sign of the Cross is not the same as why Orthodox Christians make the sign of the Cross? Yes, we do it when the Holy Trinity is invoked but it also confesses St. Cyril's very famous Theopaschite formula, that "God died on the Cross." The actions on the cross were not just completed by Christ but was an act of love within the Trinity and given to the cosmos, the Trinity's creation. The Trinity is unified as an act of love and actions that spring from the Trinity are realities of that love which binds. We make the sign of the cross because we know and confess that God loves us. We also wear crosses around our necks to proclaim that very same message.

Also, look at the iconography of the crucifixion. Notice how Christ is not hanging as if he lacks the strength as is common in Roman Catholic and Protestant art. In Eastern iconography, it appears that Christ is holding up the Cross, that it can only stand because he allows it to stand. Also notice how Christ's arms are stretched across the beam as if he is trying to embrace us or that He loves us this much.

But when the cross is reduced to a mere weapon of torture or the cross is only examined through the lens of penal satisfaction and atonement, then the focus ceases to be on God's love for man, but on man's guilt over his own sins. Yes, each man needs to be repentant of his own sins but not to the point where man fails to see any worth in himself. God certainly found worth in us or else he would not have saved us through Crucifixion and death, let alone even created us! I wonder sometimes that those who are in the various Western traditions only wear the cross around their neck for the same reason the mariner from Coleridge's poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" wore the dead albatross around his neck: to remind them of their crimes and guilt? Such an anthropocentric mindset has no room for the compassion and mercy of God.

There are those who say, mainly Lutherans, that the Orthodox do not follow the Way of the Cross. I'm not going to get into how utterly nonsensical that charge is, but if the Way of the Cross or the Theology of the Cross is to be forever focused on ourselves, our shortcomings, our guilt and not as what God has done for us, then that's the Way of Man.

So, let us cast off our despondency and rejoice in the Cross and rejoice in our God's mercy and compassion for His Creation. For He did not will that His Creation should perish and is not pleased in the perdition of men but that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth. Will all be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth? Sadly, no, but our Lord still desires it and did so with the very sacrifice of Himself on that hill in Jerusalem in 33 A.D.

O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, granting to Thy rulers (people) victory against the barbarians (enemies) and by the power of Thy Cross, preserving Thine estate.

The Universal Exaltation of the Life Giving and Precious Tree

Today, September 14 (Revised Julian Calendar), the Orthodox Church universally exalts and uplifts the Cross of our Lord from which came our salvation, the defeat of the death, the manifestation of the powerless grip of the devil, the weapon against the passions and the ensign of our inheritance as true children of God. Today, we raise the cross but we also bow down before it, venerating it and Him who, of His own free will and good pleasure, ascended it.

To simply categorize the Cross is to miss the point. For it is many things and it does many things. That is why, when piety demands it, we make the sign of the cross upon ourselves. We do it when asking for mercy, asking for protection, glorifying the Trinity, receiving the Eucharist, entering into God's holy temple, etc. But, as I was reminded recently, from reading the all too famous passage from St. John's Gospel about God giving His Only Begotten Son, that He did so not for some satisfaction of legal contracts or jurisprudence, but that He did so simply out of love for His own creation. Now, I don't dismiss that many great saints, including St. Paul himself, use juridical terminology especially in his Epistle to the Romans, but to divorce the Cross from love and make it a symbol of appeasing God's wrath is to render St. John's famous dictum as mere legal sophistry. If love is removed, then there can be no salvation.

When we Orthodox Christians make the sign of the Cross, for whatever reason, I believe, the first and foremost thought on our minds, our hearts and our lips should be "He loves us." Making the sign of the Cross reveals us as God's children, as His possession, thus a stalwart reminder to demons who attempt to ensnare us to do the work of the evil one. The demons are repulsed by love and thus are repulsed by the Cross, the Tree which undid the ancestral curse from the first tree in paradise. God cast us out of Eden for not just violating a rule, but for breaking communion with Him, breaking the covenant of love between Creator and creature, between Father and child, between master and servant.

Let the love of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, through His Precious and Life-Giving Cross, the sign of which we make upon ourselves, endure forever.

The Procession of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross

Today, August 1 (and my birthday!), the Holy Orthodox Church commemorates the procession of the Holy Cross of our Lord. On this day, the beginning of August which is usually the hottest month (or it was in Constantinople), the monks and clergy in Constantinople would take the true cross and process it around the city for the veneration (not worship!) of the faithful for deliverance from disease, death and enemies at the gates. The cross was processed through the city for the full 14 days of the Dormition Fast when we prepare ourselves to glorify God when He translated the Holy Virgin after her death to the Heavenly Realm.

In the Orthodox Church, every Sunday cycle of services is dedicated to the mystery of the Cross and the Resurrection, as are the hours on Wednesdays and Fridays which conclude with stavrotheotokia, the Orthodox equivalent to the Roman Catholic Stabat Mater Dolorosa. Also, on three specific days, Orthodox Christians venerate the cross: September 14, the third Sunday in Lent and August 1. Orthodox Christians sing this hymn on these days:

O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, granting to Thy people victory over all adversaries and by Thy Cross, preserve Thine estate.

Some would say that such procession of crosses and the veneration of the faithful is just some backward superstition. The cross has no power to cure disease or to save a nation-state, they say. The Cross is how we are justified with God. That is true, I will concede, but why must that be the only way to approach the Cross? Is not the Cross the source of life? Is not the cross a deliverance from disease? Did not St. Constantine conquer with the Cross as his sign and shield? Did not the defenders of Constantinople wear the cross as they battled against Moslem invaders for years? Isn't the cross more than just a token of forgiveness? When we sign ourselves with the cross, we do not merely proclaim that Christ has died and risen again for the forgiveness of sins, but we do it as a means of protecting ourselves from the cunning adversaries who are frightened of it. Why would the devil and his demons be frightened of only a token that says to a person "your sins are forgiven?" Satan can still pursue them, but the Cross is the giver of life, it is a bulwark against adversaries, both temporal and spiritual and it heals our infirmities.

Orthodox Christians make the sign of the cross many times during the offices and Liturgy and private prayers. For some, I'm sure, it is done merely as a pious custom or done as something traditional. You can tell who those people are since they make the sign of the Cross so fast it looks as if they are swatting flies or something. We make the sign of the Cross upon ourselves because it shows that we are Christ's. The psalmist says, "The seal of Thy countenance has been signed upon us" (Psalm 4). We Orthodox Christians venerate the cross reverently and so so because this is what makes us His. And if we are in Christ, then there is nothing, not persecution, not revilement, not desolation, not pain, not even death that can separate us from Him. The Cross is the seal that we are the people of His pasture and the work of His hand.

The Procession of the Cross also occurs at this time two other reasons. First, we are now entering the Dormition Fast where we prepare ourselves to glorify God through His mother, when we contemplate that "strange mystery, great and mavelous" when Mary is translated unto life from death. She is the very icon and embodiment of the saved. Our Lady needed the cross as all of us sinners need it now. I don't want to rehash all the anti-Catholic polemics, but making Mary into some co-redemptrix who could never taste death because of a lack of [original] sin, makes Mary less human and into something else. She needed the cross because she was still stricken with the same mortality and corruption of nature which we have all inherited. But to prepare for this "Resurrection" we need the power of the Cross as an aid. It is the same for why we venerate the cross on the third Sunday of Lent--to be a bulwark and aid to us to continue the fast and prepare.

The second reason the procession of the cross is placed here is because of its proximity to Transfiguration. Today we chanted the Katavasiae of the Canon of the Cross as well as the kontakion of the Transfiguration. The event of the Transfiguration happened 40 days before our Lord's Crucifixion. We honor the cross today and all the things it has accomplished but we do so in the context of realizing Who it was Who was crucified, the God-Man, Jesus Christ. On Mt. Tabor, He revealed Himself as truly God and truly Man, that it was God Who was about to die on the Cross, not just some "holy man" and that such a death was a willing death, not done for some sort of honor or wrath to be appeased but for the simple reason that God loves.

Let us rejoice this day in the cross of our Lord, which heals not only our souls, but also our bodies as well.

Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection, we glorify.

Hymns of the Day--September 15

MOSES PREFIGURED YOU, O PRECIOUS CROSS WHEN HE STRETCHED OUT HIS HANDS ON HIGH PUTTING AMALEK THE TYRANT TO FLIGHT. YOU ARE THE BOAST OF THE FAITHFUL AND HELP OF THE SUFFERING, GLORY OF THE APOSTLES, CHAMPION OF THE RIGHTEOUS, THE PRESERVER OF ALL THE SAINTS! BEHOLDING YOU RAISED ON HIGH CREATION REJOICES AND CELEBRATES, GLORIFYING CHRIST WHO IN HIS INFINITE GOODNESS HAS JOINED TOGETHER THROUGH YOU THAT WHICH WAS DIVIDED.--Aposticha at Vespers

THE WORDS OF MOSES THE PROPHET HAVE BEEN FULFILLED, O GOD: YOU WILL SEE YOUR LIFE HANGING BEFORE YOUR EYES! TODAY THE CROSS IS EXALTED, AND THE WORLD IS FREED FROM ERROR! THE ENDS OF THE EARTH GREATLY REJOICE! THEY SING YOU DAVID'S PSALMS WITH LOUD CLASHING CYMBALS: YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED SALVATION IN THE MIDST OF THE EARTH, O GOD! YOU HAVE SAVED US THROUGH YOUR CROSS AND RESURRECTION, FOR YOU ARE GOOD, AND THE LOVER OF MANKIND. GLORY TO YOU, ALL-POWERFUL LORD!--Doxasticon at the Aposticha for Vespers

SAVIOR, YOU WILLED TO SUFFER DEATH AND THE CROSS, FIXING IT IN THE MIDST OF THE EARTH. WHEN IT WAS YOUR GOOD PLEASURE THAT YOUR BODY BE NAILED, THE SUN HID ITS RAYS! BEHOLDING THESE THINGS, THE THIEF ON THE CROSS HYMNED YOU, CRYING OUT: REMEMBER ME, O LORD! BELIEVING, HE RECEIVED PARADISE!--Sessional Hymn after the Second Kathisma at Orthros

A Sermon on the Exaltation of the Cross by a Western Orthodox

In the lesson which was read to us, dearly beloved, we
heard about the time when the people were destroyed in
the desert by serpents or basilisks, because of the pride
of the Jews and their murmuring against the Lord.[Numbers
21:9] Moreover, the Lord commanded Moses to make a
brazen serpent and hang it on a tress, so that anyone who
had been struck might look on it and be healed from death.
Although this serpent seems to be quite wonderful, dearly
beloved, still it prefigured the Incarnation of the Lord.
Perhaps this thought might seem difficult to some men, if
the Lord Himself had not spoken in the Gospel. Thus He
said: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, even so
must the Son of Man be lifted up.” [John 3:14] That brazen
serpent was then hung on a pole, because Christ was to be
hung on the cross. At that time whoever had been struck by
a serpent looked on the brazen serpent and was healed. Now
the human race which was struck by the spiritual serpent,
the devil, looks upon Christ with faith and is healed. If a
man had been struck and failed to behold that brazen
serpent, he died. So it is, brethren: if a man does not believe
in Christ crucified, he is slain by the poison of the devil.
Then, a man looked at the dead serpent in order to escape
the live one; now, if a man wants to avoid the devil’s
poison, he looks on Christ crucified.

By suffering death unjustly, Christ payed what Adam
justly owed. The latter stretched out his hand to sweet
fruits, the former extended them to the bitter cross; the one
points out the tree of death, the other the tree of salvation.
The one lifted himself up against God and fell; Christ
humbled Himself in order to raise up all men. Adam brought
death to everyone, Christ restored life to them all. At that
time each one who looked on the brazen serpent was healed
of the poisonous serpents. The brazen serpent which was put
on a tree overcame the poison of the living serpents; when
Christ hung on the cross and died, He suppressed the ancient
poison of the devil and freed all men who had been struck by
him.

O blessed cross which makes men blessed! O cross, from
which such great and wonderful fruits are gathered! The
fruit of the cross is a glorious resurrection. This fruit of the wood
is truly planted “near running water,” [Psalm 1:3] for Baptism is
always joined to the cross. However, this wood produced “its
fruit in due season,” at the Lord’s Resurrection. It will do so
again when He appears from heaven, “is seen on earth,” and with
the dazzling sign of the cross preceding Him, comes from above.
Then, the bodies of all men who are buried will rise again, and
then, “The faithful shall exult in glory.” Then those who are not
confounded now because of the cross of their King and Lord but
rather glory in it, “shall sing for joy upon their couches.” [Ps.
149:5] To Him is honor and glory together with the Father and
the Holy Ghost world without end. Amen.--Caesarius of Arles

Exaltation of the Holy, Precious and Life-Giving Cross

"O Lord, save Thy people and bless thine inheritance, granting to Thy people victory over all their enemies. And by the power of Thy Cross, preserve Thine estate."--Troparion of Exaltation of the Holy Cross

"Rejoice, life-giving Cross of hte Lord, thou never-conquered battle-trophy of piety, support and staff of the faithful, the wall surrounding the Church, and the door that leadeth into Paradise. Through thee hath corruption been made to vanish and be no more; death's mighty powerhath vanquished and swallowed up, and we have been raised from the earth to celestial things. O truceless foe of demons, and our weapons invicible, thou ar the glory of Martyrs and the true adornment of all the Saints, calm port of salvation, that which granteth the great mercy of God unto the world."--Aposticha at Great Vespers of the Feast

"O strange wonder, great and marvellous! Today, the life-bearing Tree, the all-holy and precious Cross, being lifted up on high his made manifest openly. All of the ends of the earth give glory now and all the demons are sorely terrified. O what a gift this is, kindly granted to us mortal men, O Christ! Whereby save our souls, since Thou alone art merciful."--Praises at Orthros of the Feast

"Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master and Thy Holy Resurrection, we glorify."--Anti-trisagion at Liturgy for Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

"Today the Tree of Life, raised up from the hidden recesses of the earth, confirmeth the Resurrection of Christ, Who was nailed upon it. And raised on higy by priestly hands, it declareth His Ascension into the Heavens, whereby our nature lifted from its fall to earth, becometh a citizen of the Heavens. Wherefore, lt us cry in thanksgiving: O Lord, Who was lifted up upon the Cross, and through it hasst lifted us up with THyself, vouchsafe the joy of Heaven unto us who sing Thy praises."--Sticheron in Tone 6 for the Adoration of the Cross