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In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
We have been keeping these days the Feast of the Exaltation of the
Cross. There is a passage in the Gospel in which the Lord says to us,
"No one has greater love than he who gives his life for his neighbour".
And these words resolve the antinomy between the horror of the Cross and
the glory of it, between death and the Resurrection. There is nothing
more glorious, more awe-inspiring and wonderful than to love and to be
loved. And to be loved of God with all the life, with all the death of
the Only-Begotten Son, and to love one another at the cost of all our
life and, if necessary, of our death is both tragedy but mainly victory.
In the Canon of the Liturgy we say, "Holy, most holy art Thou and Thine
Only-Begotten Son and Thy Holy Spirit! Holy and most holy art Thou
because Thou hast so loved Thy world that Thou hast given Thine
Only-Begotten Son that those who will believe in Him do not perish but
have life eternal, Who hath come and hath fulfilled all that was
appointed for our sakes, and in the night when He was betrayed — no! —
when He gave Himself up, He took bread, and brake it and gave it to His
disciples ..."
This is the divine love. At times one can give one's own life more
easily than offer unto death the person whom one loves beyond all; and
this is what God, our Father has done. But it does not make less the
sacrifice of Him who is sent unto death for the salvation of one person
or of the whole world.
And so when we think of the Cross we must think of this strangely
inter-twined mystery of tragedy and of victory. The Cross, an instrument
of infamous death, of punitive death to which criminals were doomed,
because Christ's death was that of an innocent, and because this death
was a gift of self in an act of love — becomes victory.
This is why Saint Paul could say, "It is no longer I, it is Christ Who
lives in me." Divine love filled him to the brim and therefore there was
no room for any other thought or feeling, any other approach to anyone
apart from love, a love that gave itself unreservedly, love sacrificial,
love crucified, but love exulting in the joy of life.
And when we are told in to-day's Gospel, Turn away from yourself, take
up your Cross, Follow Me' (St Mark VIII: 34) — we are not called to
something dark and frightening; we are told by God: Open yourself to
love! Do not remain a prisoner of your own self-centredness. Do not be,
in the words of Theophane the Recluse, like a shaving of wood which is
rolled around its own emptiness. Open yourself up! Look — there is so
much to love, there are so many to love! There is such an infinity of
ways in which love can be experienced, and fulfilled and accomplished.
Open yourself and love — because this is the way of the Cross! Not the
way which the two criminals trod together with Christ to be punished for
their crimes; but the wonderful way in which giving oneself
unreservedly, turning away from self, existing only for the other,
loving with all one's being so that one exists only for the sake of the
other — this is the Cross and the glory of the Cross.
So, when we venerate the Cross, when we think of Christ's crucifixion,
when we hear the call of Christ to deny ourselves — and these words
simply mean: turn away from yourself! Take up your cross! — we are
called to open ourselves to the flood of Love Divine, that is both death
to ourselves and openness to God and to each and to all.
In the beginning of the Gospel of Saint John we are told, "And the Word
was with God"; in the Greek it says "Godwards". The Word, the Son had no
other love, no other thought, no other movement but towards the Beloved
One, giving Himself to Him Who gave Himself perfectly to Him.
Let us learn the glory of crucified Love, of this Love sacrificial which
is in the words of the Old Testament, stronger than death, stronger than
hell, stronger than all things because it is Divine Life conquering us
and poured through us onto all those who need to be loved in order to
come to Life, to believe in Love and themselves to become children of
Love, children of Light, inherit the Life eternal. Amen. |
