Homily on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

It is a true blessing to be celebrating the Exaltation of the Cross on a Sunday (the Day of Resurrection) because it is only through the Resurrection that the Cross can be understood and even tolerated. 

Without the Resurrection, God really would be dead and we really would be without hope.  Love would simply be the way that we continue our struggle into the next generation; Joy would be the neurological reaction that would allow us to endure greater hardship; Hope would be the misplaced expectation that trudging onward might bring eventual mitigation of suffering; and Religion would be the opiate that distracted us from the utter futility of our short lives.   [Without the Resurrection] Christ would have died for our sins, but the concept of sin would have lost its meaning.  And a world were love, joy, and hope are so debased; where religion has no True Object of worship; and where sin and righteousness are viewed as subjective artifacts of transient cultures; [such a world] is the kind of place where only madmen can thrive.  The world cannot know sanity or rationality if it affirms the death of God; it is the Resurrection of the God-man Jesus Christ that is the foundation of all knowledge, meaning, and understanding.

Similarly, if we consider the Passion of Jesus Christ apart from His Resurrection, and if we use this to provide context for our own individual lives we will develop an unhealthy preoccupation with our own suffering.  Such an activity is dangerous even for the most devout Christian. This is why the Orthodox do not depict the suffering of Christ in realistic detail on our crucifixes or attempt to develop a strong sense of empathy with Christ’s passion through the Stations of the Cross; and [probably] why the Orthodox Saints do not experience the stigmata as a sign of their movement toward Godliness. 

Christ’s passion does bring a context and meaning to our own suffering, but this meaning is not simply to be found in the fact that it is done in imitation of Christ’s own suffering.  Of course it is true that our suffering is given meaning because Christ suffered and that suffering has become something that can sacramentally unite us to Him.  But this is only part of the story, and [it is] by far the least interesting and meaningful part; [and] if we embrace and focus only on this partial truth, then our Faith will bring us little joy ... and no hope.

While the suffering Christ will sustain them, the joy of the man struggling with terminal disease, or of the woman working through the pain of divorce, or of the child providing care to an invalid parent, or of the widow grieving the loss or her husband is not to be found in the passion of Christ (how can anyone who believes such a thing see beyond the painful death of crucifixion).  In such trying times, the hope and joy and deeper meaning are not to be found in focusing on the Passion of Christ, but rather in looking through the terrible agony of the Cross ... into the Resurrection.  In such times, as our blood is pooling in the dirt of our own Golgotha, we turn to the Christ who turns to us as he did the repentant thief two thousand years ago and says; “this day you will be with me in Paradise”.   [The pain of the Cross is a prelude to an eternity of bliss.]

Jesus Christ did not only suffer and die as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins: He was Resurrected and Ascended into Glory Himself to make ready places There for all [those] who believe in Him.  This selfless and voluntary act of omnipotent love delivers the triumph over sin and suffering that is the true context of all the pain in our lives.  If we devote ourselves to this Love, if we humble ourselves to its demands, and if we then share it with others, then our pain will become a mechanism of sanctification and Christ will comfort and sustain us.  But while we endure the pain we do not celebrate it: we celebrate Christ’s victory over it. 

Being in Christ, we may participate (however remotely) in His Passion, but we celebrate in His – and Our Resurrection.  May God bless and strengthen us during our times of agony and allow us to see all things in the light of His Glorious Resurrection.  In the name…