The Cross of Christ - a Symbol of Love and Salvation
Veneration of the Cross, 3rd Sunday of Great Lent
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:1-6; Mark 8:34-38; 9,1
The Cross of Christ, which we worship in a special way today, is unquestionably a symbol of our salvation. The material from which the cross is made is not essential for us - we do not worship gold, wood, or any material from which this symbol of salvation and God's love is made.
God's love, because God gave His only begotten Son to be crucified, to suffer and die on a cross, a slave's gallows, out of love for people, to save people from the slavery of sin and to give their souls eternal life.
Jesus Christ, fulfilling the will of His Heavenly Father, voluntarily gave Himself to be crucified on the cross, out of love for people, and gave His human life. Before His crucifixion, He said to His disciples:
" This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has
no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:12-13)
Thus, Christ manifested the greatest love for people, on the cross -- and the cross is also a symbol of the greatest love. But let us not forget that the commandment of Jesus Christ that they [His disciples] love one another with the greatest love obliges us. We, Christ's followers, must show this greatest love among ourselves, so that we may imitate our Lord in the service of truth.
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their (i.e., the apostles') word;" (John 17:20),
Jesus prayed for us before his crucifixion. For us, because we belong to those who believed in the word of the apostles, who passed on the teaching of Christ to us.
The Lord Jesus Christ, as you know, did not compel anyone, but only called them to follow Him. But, as we have heard today from the Gospel, He also commanded:
"Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." (Mark 8:34).
For each of us, the cross is all the hardships, suffering, and patience that we endure for the sake of confessing the truth, whether it is to affirm the truths of the Christ faith or to defend and affirm justice in life in general.
One Christian has to bear a heavy cross of patience and suffering, another a lighter one, but each must bear it with dignity - not to choose the comforts of life, not to betray the truth. In our time, countless thousands of our own people have been enduring severe persecution, suffering, and death from the deniers of God, for decades, either for confessing God, Christ, or for defending the truth and the will of their people. The truth of God and the truth of our nation are inseparable when we faithfully confess Christ. It is good that we remember the cross of Christ, it is good that we honour and worship it, it is good that we do not forget the cost and means by which Jesus Christ accomplished our salvation; but if we want to truly be His followers, the Lord calls us to follow His way of righteousness, taking up "our cross."
This was also the case with Taras Shevchenko. And if nowadays fighters for truth and freedom are persecuted by atheists, Taras Shevchenko was tortured and persecuted by people who formally considered themselves Christians. In churches they glorified God, but in everyday life they crucified the confessors of the truth--this was great hypocrisy.
And let us not forget that not only Taras Shevchenko, out of his 47 years of life, was kept in serfdom for 24 years and in soldier's captivity for 10 years. At the behest of the so-called "pious" Russian tsars and tsarinas (such as Catherine II, especially), many of our secular and spiritual leaders who defended the truth of God and our people were imprisoned, dishonoured, and deprived of their lives.
We live in Canada, where there is no persecution for professing the faith of Christ or any other faith, but in this country, we have our own crosses to bear. We live in a country where our nationality, our language, and our faith are embedded as a large minority among the alien and the non-Christian, among people of different languages and cultures.
In order to preserve and strengthen our faith, to preserve and develop our faith, language, and culture in these circumstances, we need to carry our own crosses, and many additional burdens and responsibilities. No one is forcing us to do this, but we must do it out of the consciousness that our faith is true, and out of love for our faith, the Church, and our people, and show our sacrifice, imitating the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When the Lord calls us to show love to one another, to sacrifice, He is not calling us to some abstraction, but to what He has shown on earth, and therefore He is calling us to imitate Him, and thus, He is calling us to carry "our cross" and not just to boast of His cross.
Jesus Christ, both by His Gospel teaching and by His actions, teaches us to strengthen our imperfections and weaknesses with His gracious power and to achieve perfection and victory. In this, His cross of Calvary can be a guide for us:
The Lord suffered humiliation, contempt, and death on the cross, which seems negative and sad. But, having risen from the dead, having conquered death by death, Jesus Christ made the cross, the Calvary cross, a weapon of glory and victory, the victory of life over death, the victory of truth over falsehood, a sign-image of the greatest love.
Therefore, when we worship the cross of the Lord, we always glorify His resurrection at the same time, for we proclaim and sing:
"We worship Your cross, O Lord, and we glorify Your holy Resurrection!"
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
