Homily for the Sunday After the Elevation of the Honorable Cross - Salvation and the Death of the Soul (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Homily for the Sunday After the Elevation of the Honorable Cross

Salvation and the Death of the Soul

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

"What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" (Mark 8:36)

Beloved brethren,

In Holy Scripture, there are two meanings of the word "soul". Sometimes with the word "soul" it is characterized as "the spiritual element of our existence" and sometimes it is used with the biblical meaning of "life". This double meaning of the soul is seen in the following text: "Whoever would save his soul will lose it; and whoever loses his soul for my sake and the gospel's will save it. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" (Mark 8:35-36). This double meaning of the word "soul" indicates an inner connection between soul and life.

According to the Holy Fathers, the image of God in man refers to the soul, which is "rational and intelligent" or it also refers to the powers of the soul, especially the mind and speech, which are more related to the image of God in man. However, the soul is closely connected with the body. As God is omnipresent in all creation, so the soul with its energies is present in the whole body. And just as God through His energy sustains and animates the world, so the soul of man sustains and animates the attached body. Saint Gregory Palamas teaches that the image of God in man is stronger than the image of God in angels, because it animates the attached body.

Reflection on the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (St. Theophan the Recluse)

Sunday After the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Mark 8:34-38; 9:1

By St. Theophan the Recluse  

“Whoever wants to follow Me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Me” (Mark 8:34) .

It is impossible to follow the Crucified Lord without a cross; and all who follow Him certainly follow with the cross.

What is this cross? All sorts of inconveniences, hardships and sorrows, both from the outside and from within, on the path of conscientious fulfillment of the commandments of the Lord in life in the spirit of His precepts and requirements. Such a cross is so fused with a Christian that where there is a Christian, there is this cross, and where there is no such cross, there is no Christian.

Homily Three on the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on September 14/27, 1954)

 

The Cross of Christ is the great banner of our salvation, and the everlasting memory of it is most important for us. But the worries of life overwhelm us, and we easily forget about this most important thing. The Lord Jesus Christ perfectly knew the human heart, knew that it needed frequent reminders of the most important things, and He wisely took care that the instrument of our salvation, the Cross on which He gave His life for the sins of the world, was not forgotten amidst worldly fuss. His enemies, the Jewish high priests and scribes, who wanted to blot out the memory of Him, took down three crosses on Golgotha and buried them deep in the ground, covering them with a lot of earth. They did not know that it was inspired by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Homily One for the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross (Archim. George Kapsanis)

 

By Archimandrite Fr. George Kapsanis,

Former Abbot of Gregoriou Monastery, Mount Athos

(Homily Delivered in 1981)

 

We celebrate the Universal Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-giving Cross of our Lord. And while today is a day of remembrance for the Church of the crucifixion Passion of the Redeemer, we nevertheless have a certain joy. And this joy is due to the fact that the Crucifixion of the Lord and the Cross, the instrument on which the horrible but simultaneous life-giving death of our Redeemer took place, is at the same time the glory of the Lord.

You will remember, when the Lord was walking towards the crucifixion Passion, He said the words: "Now the Son of man is glorified" (Jn. 13:31). From a human point of view, death on the cross was a disgrace, it was the ultimate humiliation and contempt of man.

Homily Two on the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on September 14/27, 1953)

The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord is so great that the Holy Church established, as before Christmas and Theophany, special Gospel and Apostolic readings on Sundays before and after the Exaltation.

You came last night in great numbers to this holy temple. What attracted you? Why were your hearts filled with such deep reverence when you saw how I carried out and lifted up before you the cross of Christ? Why do we love the cross of Christ so much? Why do we bow down to it so much?

Of course, we do not only venerate the tree, although the tree of the cross of Christ became the greatest relic after it was drenched in the Blood of Christ. We venerate the crucifixion of Christ, we worship Christ God crucified on the cross, for the greatest mystery took place on the cross. What is this mystery? Why did our Lord Jesus Christ make such an amazing sacrifice for the salvation of the world?

Homily One on the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered on September 14/27, 1952)

Yesterday at Vespers you contemplated with deep reverence the ceremony of the exaltation of the cross of the Lord.

God bless you for this reverence, but is it enough? Is it enough to see the carrying out of the cross only three times a year, arousing your awe? Oh no, not at all! Much more is needed. It is necessary that the cross of Christ be imprinted on your hearts, and not just hung on your chest.

In the Middle Ages, there was a Teutonic Order of knights. A large cross was sewn on their cloaks, but with this sign of Christ they shed the blood of dark Lithuanian and Estonian pagans in streams, forcing them to be baptized with fire and sword.

Reflection on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (St. Theophan the Recluse)

 

By St. Theophan the Recluse

The honourable cross is brought out for veneration in the middle of Great Lent in order to inspire those who toil in fasting to patiently bear the yoke they have taken to the end. Why is this done in September? Is it accidental? But there are no accidents for the Providential Wisdom that arranges all things.

This is why: in September the harvest is taken from the field, at least with us. And so that some of the Christians might not feel too satisfied and say: “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry!” and so that others might not fall in spirit because of scarcity, the elevated cross is brought before all. It reminds the former that the support of well being is not possessions, but their bearing of the cross in a Christian, inner way, should God’s goodness bring external plenitude; it inspires the latter to acquire patience in their souls, through the certainty that they will go from the cross directly to paradise. Therefore, may some endure, knowing, that they are travelling a smooth path to the heavenly kingdom; and may the others enjoy external comforts with fear, not sealing the entrance to paradise against themselves.

 

 

Homily Two for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

"God so loved the world..." (John 3:16).

Why, listeners, is the Cross of the Lord elevated, that is, it rises, ascends, and, as it were, is shown?

On September 14 it is solemnly erected, especially in our cathedral during Vespers, in memory of the well-known ancient event, when the Cross of the Lord was found in the ground, taken out and elevated, to be shown to the crowds.

This happens once a year, or even every day after prayers and church services, an exaltation happens. So what is it for? The priest raises, elevates, lifts up the Cross of the Lord, so that you see it, venerate it, then he overshadows you with the Cross, so that you adore it and accept the blessing of the Crucified One on the Cross.

Homily One for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

 

By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

"We venerate Your Cross, Lord!"

Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord; I will tell you, listeners, what this feast means and on what occasion it is established.

Once, the Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great, going to battle against Maxentius, saw in the daytime in the air a cross made up of stars, and at the bottom of the cross were the words: “In this sign thou shalt conquer.” Encouraged by such a wonderful appearance, Constantine the Great boldly entered the battle and happily defeated his enemy. The mother of Constantine, the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Helen, attributing this victory to Jesus Christ, from this incident took the intention to find the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. And so she goes to Jerusalem, searches, visits, asks the inhabitants of Jerusalem about the Cross of the Lord, but no one knew anything about it. Finally, from some elderly Jew named Judas, she learns where the Cross of the Lord is: it was buried in the ground, under a pagan temple. Saint Helen immediately ordered the building to be demolished; and the building was demolished, they began to dig and found three crosses in the ground.

Homily for the Sunday Before the Elevation of the Honorable Cross - The Thrice-Blessed Cross (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

Homily for the Sunday Before the Elevation of the Honorable Cross

The Thrice-Blessed Cross

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up..." (Jn. 3:14)

Beloved brethren,

The story of the bronze serpent is well known, to which today's Gospel reading refers. Because of the indignation of the ungrateful Jewish people, God sent snakes that spread death. However, God again took pity on the people and ordered Moses to make a bronze serpent, which when the Jews saw it, they were cured of the snake bites (Num. 8-9). This historical event is adapted in two ways to the case of Christ, according to two ecclesiastical interpretations.

According to the first established interpretation, the bronze serpent is a type of the Crucified Christ. Just as the bronze serpent had the form of a snake but had no poison, so Christ had a human body but had no sin. The Jews saw the brazen serpent and were afflicted by the bites of real snakes. Christians see the Crucified Christ, receive His Grace and are healed from the bites of invisible snakes, evil spirits. The Crucified One gives us spiritual health, purification of the soul, eternal life, unspeakable peace.

Homily for the Sunday Before the Elevation of the Honorable Cross (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered in 1949)

There are many, many texts in Holy Scripture that amaze the mind and heart of every pious and reverent person. But today, on the Sunday preceding the Exaltation of the Cross of Christ, I will stop your thoughts on the most amazing words - the words of the Apostle Paul and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

I want these words to amaze you and shock you, so that you imprint them forever in your hearts:

“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:19-20).

Second Homily on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

 

By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

In beginning my words to you, I made the sign of the Cross on myself. So do you, Christian listeners, do on various occasions. We are so accustomed to this custom from childhood that we rarely pay due attention to it. And therefore, let us now consider what it means that we make the sign of the Cross on ourselves, and why we do it.

From the time when Jesus Christ was crucified for us on the Cross, the Cross has become an integral part of Jesus Christ. Therefore, when we make the sign of the Cross on ourselves, we show and, as it were, say about ourselves: I am a Christian, I am Christ's, I believe in Christ, I hope and trust in Christ, I serve Christ, I follow, I adorn myself with Christ, I put on Christ. Thus, by the sign of the Cross, which we make on ourselves, anyone can know that we are Christians. The sign of the Cross is the external distinguishing mark of a Christian.

First Homily on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

 

 By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

"We venerate Thy Cross, O Lord, and glorify Thy holy Resurrection."

At one time, Jesus Christ, having called the people with His disciples, said to them: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (Matthew 16:24-28).

The Elephants of Constantinople That Would Make the Sign of the Cross With Their Trunks

In the Ecclesiastical History of John, Bishop of Ephesus (Bk. 2), we have a historical record of a resident of Constantinople in the late sixth century. There he gives an eye-witness account of the following miracle that took place with elephants in Constantinople:

There were at that time at Constantinople some elephants, whose conduct excited wonder and astonishment. Now it may easily happen that those who are given to ridicule will find only an occasion for derision in lighting upon a narrative of the acts of irrational animals in our histories: but we do not record it without reason, or, so to say, foolishly, but first of all for the glory of God, and secondly for the refutation and conviction of heathens and Jews, and of all other mistaken persons, who deny the cross, and reject the dispensation of our Savior, the sign of which is the cross upon which it was wrought.

Homily for the Sunday After the Elevation of the Honorable Cross (Archimandrite George Kapsanis)

By Archimandrite George Kapsanis,
Former Abbot of Gregoriou Monastery on Mount Athos

(Delivered in the Refectory in 1985)

We have heard the word of the Lord again today, my brethren, in the Holy Gospel: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mk. 8:34). This is the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross. The day before yesterday we had the feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross. And that is why the Church today is talking about the Cross again. The Cross of the Lord, which must become our cross. For if we do not lift up our cross, if we do not partake of the Cross of Christ, what kind of Christians are we? Because a Christian is one who imitates Christ, hence they are a Christian. And he imitates Christ throughout his life, even His crucifixion. And he is crucified with Christ in order to be with Him and to walk "in the newness of life" (Rom. 6:4), as the divine Apostle Paul says.

The Axe Head of the Prophet Elisha as a Foreshadowing of the Cross

In 2(4) Kings 6:1-7 we read:

And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us. Please, let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell.”

So he answered, “Go.”

Then one said, “Please consent to go with your servants.”

And he answered, “I will go.” So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed.”

The Crosswise Blessing of the Patriarch Jacob as a Foreshadowing of the Cross

 

In Genesis 48:8-20 we read:

When Israel [Jacob] saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?”

“They are the sons God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father.

Then Israel said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”

Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.

Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”

Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.

The Iron Cross of Saint Kosmas Aitolos in the Village of Agios Kosmas in Grevena

 

In the village of Agios Kosmas of Grevena, an iron cross is kept that belonged to Saint Kosmas the Aitolos, which according to local tradition is one of the four authentic crosses of Saint Kosmas that are preserved.

When Saint Kosmas came to the village of Tsiraki (today known as Agios Kosmas of Grevena) in 1777 during his Third Missionary Journey and preached to the inhabitants, when night time came he asked to stay in the poorest house of the village. A certain beggar informed him that he was the poorest. Saint Kosmas went and stayed with him, and requested that he make for him an iron cross. The next day, when Saint Kosmas left the village, he placed the iron cross on a branch of an oak tree outside the village, and prophesied:

"When this branch falls, a great evil will come, which will come from the place indicated by the branch; and when the tree falls, a greater evil will come."

Two Common Features in Traditional Icons of Saints Constantine and Helen

 

A common and very noticeable feature in traditional icons of Saints Constantine and Helen is that there is a Cross in between them. However, what many often do not notice is the placement of their hands on this Cross. There is a very specific rule regarding these hand placements: Constantine's hand must hold the Cross above where Helen places her hand on the Cross. Why such a specification? Because this indicates how the Cross was revealed to them - to Constantine was revealed the Cross in the sky above the earth, while to Helen was revealed the Cross in the ground below the earth.

Relics of the Cross of the Good Thief

The Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome claims to have a portion of the cross on which the Good Thief was crucified next to Jesus; it is located in its La Cappella delle Reliquie. 

 

This cross was found by Saint Helen in the fourth century when she discovered the True Cross of the Lord. According to tradition, Saint Helen herself brought this relic to Rome which she kept in her palace.