Our favorite, everyone loves this, before that
cross we bow down and some of the prayers have
to communion, let me say a few words. The week
of the cross also is the week, not coincidentally,
in which the extra litany's petitions are done
for the catechumens who are to be baptized. They're
called those who are preparing for holy illumination,
photosomany in Greek. And there's extra prayers
for them. You might say the Orthodox Church is,
in many ways, not seeker -friendly. We make the
catechumens wait. We even send them away, and
some of them are standing outside for the whole
service. They know the message of the cross.
And if there's anything that's not seeker -friendly,
it's the invitation by the Lord when it's misunderstood.
When it's understood, of course, it is the only
thing that we have, the only thing we can hold
on to, that invitation that we heard on Sunday.
You remember, right? If you want to follow me,
so this is an invitation. It's not a threat.
Anyone is free to choose or reject. If you want
to follow me, and what could be better than to
follow our creator, his immeasurable love for
us, his understanding, his healing, his glory,
his holiness, his peace, the way, the truth,
and the life. What could be better than that?
But he has a condition for the believer. Deny
yourself. And so catechumens learn how to do
that. And I hope they can learn by watching in
some way, not in an ostentatious way for us,
but in some way, a humble way, our own fasting,
our own self -denial, to strut about and to say
things we shouldn't and to talk when we should
be quiet, to say a kind word but we don't say
the kind word when we should because we don't
have discernment. And the other thing that the
Lord said, the foundational requirement for being
a disciple, deny yourself and pick up your cross.
Now, we all have all kinds of crosses. That's
true. Father James was right about that on Sunday.
Difficulties, hardships, illness, people in your
life. But when Jesus was speaking to those people
there, And the disciples said, anyone who wants
to follow me, deny yourself, pick up your cross.
Nobody thought that the cross was some kind of
inconvenience. Everyone knew that it meant the
Romans pounding your hands and feet into the
wood, blood and death. That's what they knew.
So what Jesus is telling us is that he's going
that way. That's what he's going to do because
there's no other way to defeat him that held
the power of death, that is the devil, than to
die and to let the realm of death, Hades itself,
be filled with the glory, peace, kindness, and
goodness of God in the obedience to the Heavenly
Father. And he's inviting us in our own life
to follow that same path. And it's going to take
a different form for each of us. whatever station
we have in life. But it certainly will be a painful
self -denial. Because if we don't do that, we
hold on and we protect what we think is our ego,
what is something so special, so unique, when
in fact God has made what is unique, but it's
covered with sin. God has made something special
and glorious in each one of you, in each creation
that he has made. It's covered and disfigured.
The denial and the cross is our way of cleansing
that with God's grace. We look finally for worldly
success and we blame God when things don't go
right in the world. This happens continually,
I know, and I do it myself. But the way of the
cross doesn't look like success to those standing
there. The invitation seems a little frightening
to those who heard it. But we are on the other
side of his crucifixion and his resurrection
and ascension and glorious Pentecost, his gift
to us. We're on the other side of that. So we
know, brothers and sisters, what awaits us. We
know how good God is and the immeasurable love
that he has for us because the cross is that.
When all week long we are singing victory hymns
of the cross, on Holy Friday we will meditate
on the darkness of that day. But this week we
speak about the victory, the power of the cross
in our life, the way we defeat the evil and the
sin and death, the way we find joy. For through
the cross, joy has come into all the world. The
blessing of the Lord and his mercy be upon you
through his divine grace and love for man. Always
now and ever and unto ages of ages.