Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross #
The third Sunday of Great Lent bears the name Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross. It is worth recalling that in Church Slavonic, the word nedelya refers not to a seven-day week, but to the day of Sunday itself. Nedelya means a day of rest, when “nothing is done,” that is, no work is performed. The modern sense of the word week is expressed in Slavonic by sedmitsa. Beginning with the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, five days are devoted to the veneration of the Precious Cross of the Lord, which, at the end of the Sunday Matins service, is brought out from the altar, solemnly placed in the middle of the church, and remains there until Friday.
Nikephoros Kallistos, a Greek ecclesiastical writer of the 14th century and author of the Triodion Synaxaria—homilies that are read to this day at Matins on the Sundays of Great Lent—interprets this ancient Church tradition symbolically. He compares the Tree of the Cross with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which grew in Eden, from which God forbade our forefathers to eat. “Just as that first tree was planted by God in the midst of the earthly paradise,” he writes, “so too is the Tree of the Cross planted in the midst of the Forty Days; but whereas by partaking of the fruit of the first tree, man lost the blessedness of paradise, by partaking of the fruits of the second tree, he receives forgiveness of sins, sanctification, and eternal life in the Kingdom of Christ.”
“The word of the cross is foolishness to them that perish, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God,” teaches the holy Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 1:18). For the ancients, execution by crucifixion was not only the most agonizing but also the most shameful death: the Romans reserved it for slaves, and no free person could be subjected to it. Among the Jews, according to the Old Testament Scriptures, it was held that “cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23). And yet, this dreadful punishment was taken upon Himself for the sins of the world by the only Sinless One—the Only-begotten Son of God—who came into the world to save the very people He had created, thereby confounding all human wisdom. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe,” the apostle continues. “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:21–24).
Commenting on these words of the Apostle Paul, St. John of Damascus writes:
“Every act and miracle of Christ is exceedingly great and divine and wondrous, but more wondrous than all is His Most Honorable Cross. For by it death is overthrown, the ancestral sin is destroyed, hell is plundered, the Resurrection is granted, we are given the power to despise the present life and even death itself, the original blessedness is restored, the gates of paradise are opened, our nature is seated at the right hand of God—we have become children of God and heirs, not by any other means, but by the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Cross has clothed us in the hypostatic wisdom and power of God. And the word of the Cross is the power of God—either because through it the might of God was revealed to us, namely His triumph over death, or because, just as the four arms of the Cross are firmly held and bound together by the center, so too by the power of God all things are upheld—height and depth, length and breadth, that is, all visible and invisible creation” (Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, Chapter 11).
St. John sees in the Cross not only a symbol of redemption, but of the very order of the world itself—in its living interconnectedness, in its wise unity, whose center, preserver, and mover is God. The sign of the Cross, which permeates the entire universe—nature and the works of human hands—reminds us that the One who created this world and the One who suffered for us is the same God. And we, the veneration-bearers of His Cross—Christians—are called to be “cultivators and keepers” of the whole world, just as the forefather Adam was entrusted to “till and keep” the garden of Eden, in which he was placed (Genesis 2:15).
The words of the Savior to His disciples: “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34), thus signify not only the readiness to endure suffering and sorrow for Christ’s sake, which fall to the lot of every Christian, but also a readiness for inspired, creative labor—a labor of love that preserves the creation of God. In our own age of destructive wars, of terrible weapons that destroy all life along with mankind, in an age of plundering and ruinous exploitation of the God-given natural environment, the disciple of Christ is called to show gratitude to the Creator, love for His created world, and wonder at all the works of God’s hands—through his labors, his daily cares, and his active defense of the beauty entrusted to us by God. In this, just as much as in fasting, prayer, self-denial, or martyrdom, he shows himself to be a bearer and confessor of the Cross of his Lord.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus:\
“I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:14, 16–19).
“O wondrous marvel! The breadth of the Cross is equal to the length of the heavens: for by divine grace it sanctifieth all things,”* sings the Holy Church in praise of the Cross of Christ. By the Cross of our Lord, which with its rays illumines the ends of the earth, we both come to know the love of Christ and are filled, according to the apostle’s word, with all the fullness of God. And may the days of the veneration of the Cross, marking the midpoint of the Fast, grant to our souls an outpouring of divine light—so that, illumined and made radiant by it, we may behold with the eyes of the heart, on the night of the Resurrection of our Savior from the dead, the radiant Angel in garments shining like snow, crying out with a mighty voice: “This day is salvation come unto the world, for Christ is risen, mighty in power!” (Paschal Canon, Ode 4, Irmos).
Sticheron at “Lord, I have cried,” Tone 5
Shine forth, O Cross of the Lord, with the lightning-flashes of Thy grace upon the hearts of those who honor Thee and receive Thee with loving devotion as the most desired myrrh. By Thee the tears of compunction have been wiped away, we are delivered from the snares of death, and we are brought unto eternal joy. Show forth the beauty of Thy splendor, reward the labors of self-restraint of Thy servants who faithfully entreat Thee, grant Thy rich protection and great mercy.
Sticheron at the Litia, Tone 5
When all creation beheld Thee, the Maker and Fashioner of all, hanging naked upon the Cross, it was changed with fear and wept. The sun darkened its light, the earth quaked, the rocks were rent, and the veil of the temple was torn. The dead arose from their graves, and the angelic hosts were struck with awe, saying: “O wonder! The Judge is judged and suffers willingly for the salvation and renewal of the world.”