The Cross is placed before us this week, mid-point between the Lord's Pascha and the next Pascha, between His crucifixion and the next Crucifixion. The Church always has a reason for doing such things. It's a good reminder for us that the Cross is the centre of our life in the Lord.
What the Cross offers us is an image and icon of what God's life is like, what His love is like, and ultimately what He calls our life and our love to be like all year round - from one Pascha to the next, leading ultimately to our resurrection. This resurrection must happen inside of us during this life. We must rise from the death of our sinfulness and passions to new life. This is not something that happens in one moment but rather it’s worked out over a lifetime of struggle as the Lord Himself says: ‘he that endureth to the end shall be saved’ (Mt. 10:22).
Death goes deep into the very fabric of our being, and Christ needs to conquer that death within us and raise us up in this life, today. A lot of times God Himself will push us or try to move us in the right direction and try to compel us through the difficulties and sufferings of our circumstances to come into His Kingdom. Our task is to do what we know we should be doing right now—that thing that we know we should be doing right now but don’t want to, and which we need to ask the Lord’s help with, to fulfil that small task of faithfulness, in order to move towards the Lord and ultimately towards our own resurrection.
Let us beseech the Lord to give us the strength to carry our cross, just as the Lord carried His Cross, always remembering that the goal of our life is to love God and to love each other. There’s nothing more important than this. Let us pray for one another today that God would help us, save us, and bless us all.
+ Archimandrite Sergius of St. Tikhon's Monastery
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου