The Cross of Christ made a cut and put a deep seal on history. No one would have expected in the human mind such an intervention of God, an intervention of love in the world he created. He first of all put a great stamp on time. Secondly, he put a great seal on creation, the immaterial creation, the angels and the demons, because some alteration happened to them as well. Third, he put a great seal on nature, the material nature, the universe.
Every time we pass by somewhere and we make our cross, the air is sanctified, the material world is changed. It is only in this universality and universality that the crucial stone remains to be placed. And that little stone is to enter our own alteration from the cross; alteration of faith, crucified faith, alteration of attitude, crucified attitude, alteration of life, really life of sacrifice and cross.
To this our Church invites us, together with the whole creation, together with nature, together with the whole world, to make our own change from worldly ease and logic to the holy cross.
Our whole life our education and emphatic self, advocate that we assert and enforce the truth with reason, justice and force. But Christ comes and by His life and passion He puts grace in the place of reason, love and mercy in the place of justice, and divine power, humility, in the place of human strength. God is not just! Thank God he is not just! If He is just, then “what is He upholding from His face?” Who could stand before Him? God’s justice practices a holy injustice – the injustice of mercy. This mercy flows out of the blessed spring called the Holy Cross.
What does the Cross tell us? That we should not struggle to find our right; let us be wronged. Not to struggle to assert our power; let us humble ourselves. Let us not seek by the bonds of reason to grasp the uncontainable in our little minds; let us leave our souls exposed to His grace, as it appears through the mystery of the Cross. Says St. Nicodemus, many Christians are the Christians of the Transfiguration; they are all fond of joys, miracles, beautiful things from the side of faith. That’s the many. But the true Christians are the Christians of the Cross. Behind every cross we can see our salvation. And on the cross of Christ we are called to project our own crosses.
That is why our Church on these days reminds us of two historical events, one of which is the finding of the Holy Cross in the 4th century by the queen, the mother of Constantine the Great, Saint Helen, and the second, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross by Heraclius when he took it from the hands of the Persians, gives us every year the reason for the Holy Cross to be raised before our eyes, but above all to be raised in our hearts and in our minds, so that it can transform our lives.
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross is not only an event that took place during the time of Saint Helen and Constantine the Great or during the time of the Emperor Heraklion, but it is a great mystical feast and celebration that is constantly performed in our hearts. This taste of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in our hearts, we wish that the crucified Lord may richly bestow it on all of us. Amen!
Metropolitan Nicholas of Messogaia and Lavreotiki
