I would try today, with even greater humility in the Holy Spirit, to approach the theme dedicated to this Sunday, the third Sunday of the Great Lent, the Holy Cross.
Many things can be said about the Holy Cross, but even much more things can be done, in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ, on the Holy Cross, and actually spend the life in the spirit of humility and sacrifice of the Holy Cross, invisible, on the Holy Cross.
Like Jesus Christ said…’Whoever wants to walk on My path, to give up on himself (herself), take his/her Cross on, and follow Me!’ There is no other way to be with Jesus Christ, in this lifetime, and in the Afterlife, but on the Holy Cross with Him, as there is no Resurrection, but only after death, as there is no flourishing and revival of the mind, but only after the death and crucifixion of the passions.
Like eugene Rose, the monk of Platina, California, said once…’I have crucified my mind, I haven’t lost anything, and I have found out everything!’ The Holy Cross is one of the Entities and Instruments of the Holy Universal and Apostolic Church, of Which Godhead is Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Word of God, incarnated, with a human soul. Like one of the Orthodox Saints said once…’I only know Jesus Christ in my life, and This One, Crucified!’
The Cross was in the Roman empire the most shameful instrument of torture and punishment, but Jesus Christ, after being crucified on the Holy Cross, has turned the Holy Cross into an instrument of glorification, and terror to the demons, so powerful, that the demons simply cannot suffer to even look at the Holy Cross, as a constant reminder of their eternal punishment to hell.
There is no self-pitiful scuzzy wagering, squalid skittish unavoidable negotiation with the Holy Cross, but it takes a simply gesture, of agreement with Jesus Christ, in the mind, to follow Him, and the enemies, most of the times without knowing it, crucify an Orthodox mind, and unite it with Jesus Christ, from this life, by merely accepting freely the challenges, the hardships of the life, without protest, by putting up with the humiliations caused by the enemies of Holy Trinity, which are everywhere, and most of the times driven by demons, as this marvellous mystery is eventually cleansing the passions inside us, reuniting with Jesus Christ, like the trees which absorb the polluted air, and breathe out secretly the oxygen of life, and ultimately, turning us compatible with the Unoriginated and non-Created Kingdom of Heaven, like Saint Dismas, the good Thief, the first human soul to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, the companion of Jesus Christ on the Cross, who heard from Him: ‘Today you will be with Me in Heaven!…’
The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the Holy Cross was envisioned in the Old Testament, by holy Prophet Moses, who was making with his body the form of the Cross, during the battles of the jewish people, with his arms opened, and was staying like that for hours, and the jewish were defeating their enemies, and when holy Moses, tired, was resting his arms down, for a short while, his people was defeated in the battle.
As well, when the jews were bitten by poisonous snakes in the desert, were dying, but when they made a Cross, with a bronze snake on it, and whenever they were looking at the Cross, with the bronze snake on it, they were healed of the bites of the poisonous snakes.
There is a true story that somebody, inspired by the holy Angel of God, knowing that from that Tree, a Tree which was growing quite far from him, will be made the Holy Cross on Which Jesus Christ will be crucified, every day was making a long walk, with only a small cup of water, to wet that Tree, which eventually grew up, and from which was made the Holy Cross, on Which Jesus Christ was crucified…
After centuries of the Crucifixion and the Holy Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the holy Empress Helen, the mother of Saint Constantine the Great, moved by divine zeal, has traveled to Jerusalem, in the days of Saint Macarius, the Bishop of Jerusalem, and have found, based on historic facts, Golgotha, the place of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. When they have uncovered, through digging, the 3 Crosses on the site, not knowing which of the 3 Crosses was the Holy Cross, where Jesus Christ was crucified, they brought a woman suffering of a malady, and when they touched her with the Holy Cross, she was immediately cured!
The the jagged frisky umbrage reports and rumors were silenced, and the triumph of the Holy Cross, today, like the triumph of the Holy Orthodoxy, and of the Holy Universal and Apostolic Church, in the first Sunday of the Great Lent, have become undisputed. And like Saint Apostle Paul the Astonishing says…’The Holy Cross is for the greeks, the non-believing jews, and for all the other pagans, madness, but for us, the Orthodox, is a source of constant joy, and Redemption!!’
Next Sunday of the Great Lent, will be dedicated to Saint John Climax, and his quintessential book, The Ladder of the Divine Ascent, which is included in the Philokalia series, volume 9.
So help us God Almighty!!!…