Three words about bearing the cross

Word one * Word two * Word three “Let me not boast except about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” says St. Apostle Paul (Gal. 6:14). How is it St. Did the apostle reach such a disposition that he did not want to boast about anything else except the cross of Christ? The cross is in every way sorrow, oppression, humiliation; how can one boast about it? And yet the Apostle Paul boasts about him; Of course, all the Apostles boasted along with him, and after them all the other crusaders. Why is this so? God-wise men saw the great significance of the cross, highly valued it and boasted that they were worthy to wear it. They saw in it, instead of crampedness, breadth, instead of sorrow, sweetness, instead of humiliation, greatness, instead of dishonor, glory - and they boasted of it, as another boasts of some magnificent decoration and distinction. Oh, when the Lord would grant us such meaning and disposition to understand and feel the power of the cross and begin to boast about it! About the meaning of the cross, here is a brief general explanation: the Lord accomplished our salvation by His death on the cross; on the cross He tore to pieces the handwriting of our sins; by the cross he reconciled us to God and the Father; through the cross he brought down upon us the gifts of grace and all the blessings of heaven. But such is the cross of the Lord in himself. Each of us becomes a participant in his saving power only through our own cross. Each person’s own cross, when united with the cross of Christ, transfers the power and effect of this latter to us, becoming, as it were, a channel through which from the cross of Christ every good gift is poured onto us and every gift is perfect. From this it is clear that each person’s own crosses are as necessary in the matter of salvation as the cross of Christ is necessary. And you will not find a single one saved who was not a crusader. For this reason, everyone is fully covered with crosses, so as not to be difficult in seeking to bear the cross and not be far from the saving power of the cross of Christ. You can say this: look around you and within yourself, see your cross, carry it as you should, united with the cross of Christ, and you will be saved. Although not everyone bears his own cross, and for the most part the cross is not simple, but complex, not everyone looks at it through the cross of Christ; not everyone turns it into the dispensation of their salvation; That’s why the cross is not a saving cross for everyone. Let's review all possible crosses and figure out how each of them should be carried so that it can be a force for salvation. There are many crosses, but there are three types of them: the first type is external crosses, made up of sorrows and troubles, and in general from the bitter fate of earthly existence; the second is internal crosses, born from the struggle with passions and lusts for the sake of virtue; the third is crosses of spiritual grace, placed with perfect devotion to the will of God. Now I will tell you a few words about external crosses. These are the most complex and varied crosses. They are scattered along all our paths and meet at almost every step. These include: sorrows, misfortunes, misfortunes, illnesses, losses of loved ones, failures in the service, all kinds of deprivations and damages, family troubles, unfavorable external relationships, insults, insults, false accusations and in general the earthly lot, which is more or less difficult for everyone. – Who doesn’t have any of these crosses? And it’s impossible not to be. Neither nobility, nor wealth, nor glory, nor any earthly greatness can relieve them. They have grown together with our earthly existence from the moment the earthly paradise concluded, and will not depart from it until the heavenly paradise opens. If you want these crosses to be your salvation, use them according to God’s intention when assigning them in relation to man in general, and in relation to you in particular. Why did the Lord arrange it so that there is no one on earth without sorrows and hardships? Then, so that a person does not forget that he is an exile, and would live on earth not as a relative on his native side, but as a wanderer and stranger in a foreign land, and seek a return to his true fatherland. As soon as a person has sinned, he is immediately expelled from paradise, and outside paradise he is surrounded by sorrows and deprivations and all kinds of inconveniences, so that he remembers that he is not in his place, but is under punishment and takes care to seek pardon and return to his rank. So, seeing sorrows, misfortunes and tears, do not be surprised and, enduring them, do not be annoyed. That's how it should be. Complete prosperity and happiness do not suit the criminal and the disobedient. Take this to heart and bear your share complacently. But why, you say, do I have more, and the other have less? Why am I burdened by troubles, while others are almost happy in everything? Am I torn by grief, while another is comforted? If this is a common fate, then everyone, without exception, should share it. - Yes, that’s how it sounds. Look closely and you will see. It’s hard for you today, but it was hard for someone else yesterday, or it will be hard tomorrow; Now the Lord allows him to rest. Why do you look at the hours and days? Look at your whole life, from beginning to end, and you will see that it is hard for everyone, and very hard. Find who rejoices their whole life? The kings themselves often do not sleep at night because of the pain of their hearts. It’s hard for you now, but haven’t you seen joyful days before? God willing, you'll see. Be patient! The sky above you will also clear. In life, as in nature, there are sometimes bright and sometimes dark days. Has it ever happened that a menacing cloud did not pass? And was there anyone in the world who would think so? Don’t think about your grief like that, and you will delight yourself with hope. It's hard for you. But is this an accident without cause? Raise your head a little and remember that there is a Lord who cares for you like a father and does not take his eyes off you. If grief befalls you, it is not otherwise than with His consent and will. No one like He sent it to you. And He knows very precisely what, to whom, when and how to send; and when he sends, he sends for the good of the one who is subject to grief. So look around, and you will see God’s good intentions for you in the sorrow that has befallen you. Either the Lord wants to cleanse some sin, or take away a sinful deed, or cover it up with a smaller grief from a greater one, or give you an opportunity to show patience and fidelity to the Lord, so that later he can show you the glory of His mercy. Some of this certainly comes to you. Find out what exactly it is, and apply it to your wound like a plaster, and its burning sensation will be quenched. If, however, you do not clearly see what exactly God wants to give you through the grief that has befallen you, build up a general, unthinking belief in your heart that everything is from the Lord, and that everything that comes from the Lord is for our good; and interpret to the restless soul: this is what pleases God. Be patient! Whoever He punishes is like a son to Him! Most of all, pay attention to your moral state and corresponding eternal fate. If you are a sinner—as, of course, you are a sinner—then rejoice that the fire of sorrow has come and will burn away your sins. You keep looking at the mountain from the ground. And you are transported to another life. Stand in court. Look at the eternal fire prepared for sins. And from there, look at your grief. If he has to be condemned there, what sorrows would you not be willing to endure here, just so as not to fall under this condemnation? I would wish that they cut and burn every day now, rather than fall into indescribable and incessant torment. Isn’t it better, so as not to experience this there, now and not bear so much grief so that through this you can get rid of the eternal fire? Say to yourself: because of my sins, such blows were sent to me, and thank the Lord that His goodness leads you to repentance. Then, instead of fruitless grief, recognize what sin you have, repent and stop sinning. When you settle down like this, you will of course say: I still don’t have enough. Because of my sins I’m not even worth it! So, whether you bear a common bitter share, or you experience private sorrows and sorrows, endure them complacently, gratefully accepting them from the hand of the Lord, as a cure for sins, as a key that opens the door to the kingdom of heaven. But don’t grumble, don’t envy others, and don’t indulge in senseless grief. For in grief it happens that some people begin to be annoyed and grumble, others are completely lost and fall into despair, and others are plunged into their grief, and only grieve, without moving their thoughts around and without raising their hearts to the grief - to God. All such do not use the crosses sent to them as they should, and miss the favorable time and the day of salvation. The Lord puts the work of salvation into their hands, but they reject it. Trouble and grief befell. You are already carrying the cross. Make sure that this bearing is for salvation and not for destruction. For this, it is not necessary to remove mountains, but to make a small change in the thoughts of the mind and the disposition of the heart. Arouse gratitude, humble yourself under a strong hand, repent, correct your life. If faith in God’s rule of all has departed, return it to your bosom and kiss the right hand of God. If the connection between grief and your sins has been hidden, sharpen the eye of conscience and you will see: You will mourn for sin and moisten the dryness of grief with tears of repentance. If you have forgotten that the bitterness of this fate redeems you from the bitterest eternal fate, revive the memory of that, and add to complacency the desire for sorrows, so that for the small sorrows here we may receive eternal mercy from the Lord. Is all this much and difficult? Meanwhile, such thoughts and feelings are the threads by which our cross is connected with the cross of Christ and from it flow the forces that save us. Without them, the cross remains on us and weighs us down, but has no salvation, being separated from the cross of Christ. Then we are unsaveable crusaders, and we can no longer boast about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Having told you little of the many things about external crosses, I invite you, brothers, to walk in wisdom, redeeming the time of grief and sorrow with complacent, grateful and repentant patience. Then we will feel the saving effect of sorrowful crosses, and we will rejoice, being exposed to them, seeing through them the light of glory, and learn to boast about them not only for the sake of the future, but also for the present fruit from them. Amen. Of the three types of cross, I told you a few words about it, namely about external crosses: sorrows, troubles and deprivations. Now I will say something about the second type of crosses, internal crosses. We encounter internal crosses during our struggle with passions and lusts. The Holy Apostle says: “They are like Christ, having crucified the flesh with passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). Crucified? It became a cross on which these passions and lusts were crucified. What kind of cross is this? Fight them. To crucify passions means to weaken them, suppress them, and eradicate them. If a person overcomes a passion several times, he will weaken it; will fight a few more, suppress; He will still overcome it and completely eradicate it, with the help of God. Just as this struggle is difficult, regrettable and painful, it is truly a cross planted within us. For someone struggling with passions, sometimes it’s as if his hands are nailed, a crown of thorns is put on his head, and his living heart is pierced. So it becomes difficult and painful for him. Labor and pain cannot but exist; for although the passions are alien to us, having come from outside, they have grown so close to the body and soul that they have penetrated with their roots into all their compositions and powers. Start pulling it out, and it hurts. It is painful, but it is saving, and this saving power can only be achieved through pain. There is a polyp disease: some body alien to us is born in our body, grows and takes root. If you don’t cut it out, you won’t be healed, but if you start cutting it out, it hurts. It may hurt, but this pain restores health. But leave it, don’t cut it out, it will also hurt, only this pain does not lead to health, but to an increase in the disease, maybe even to death. So how is Siberian disease treated? They will cut out the pimple and burn the area, and then smear and rub something poisonous on it. It hurts, but it's healing. But leave it like this, pain will be pain, and death will not be avoided. Likewise, the fight against passions, or their eradication, is painful, but salutary. But leave passions, don’t eradicate them; they, too, will cause hardship, pain, suffering, but not for salvation, but for destruction and spiritual death: for “the price of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). What passion is not painful? Anger burns; envy dries; lust relaxes; stinginess prevents you from eating and sleeping; offended pride murderously devours the heart; and every other passion: hatred, suspicion, quarrelsomeness, man-pleasing, addiction to things and persons - causes us torment; so to live in passions is the same as walking on knives or coals with bare feet, or being in the position of a person whose heart is sucked by snakes. And again, who doesn't have passions? Everyone has it. As soon as there is self-love, all passions are there, for it is the mother of passions and cannot exist without its daughters. But not everyone has them all to the same degree: for one one, for another the other predominates and rules the others. And when everyone has passions, there is also torment from them. Everyone is tormented and crucified by passions - only not for salvation, but for destruction. So, carrying passions, you are tormented by them and die. Isn’t it better to take charge of yourself and create suffering within yourself, also due to passions, but not for destruction, but for salvation. One has only to turn the knife, and instead of satisfying the passions, hitting oneself with them, hitting the passions with them, starting a fight with them and going against them in everything. And here there will be pain and suffering of the heart, but healing pain, which will immediately be followed by joyful calm, as happens when a healing plaster gets on a wound. For example, someone will become angry; anger is difficult to overcome and unpleasant; but when you overcome, you will calm down; and when you satisfy him, you will worry for a long time. If someone is offended, it is difficult to overcome oneself and forgive; but when you forgive, you will have peace; and when you take revenge, you will not see peace. An addiction has ignited and is difficult to extinguish; but when you extinguish it, you will see the light of God; If you don’t extinguish it, you will walk like a dead man. So in relation to any passion. And passion torments, and the struggle with it causes sorrow. But the first destroys, and the second saves and heals. Anyone who is passionate must be told: you are perishing on the cross of passions. Destroy this cross and build another one - a cross to fight them. And crucification on him will be your salvation! All this is clear as day; and the choice, it seems, should be very easy. And, however, he is not always justified by deeds. And we should be surprised at our blindness. Another suffers from passion, and still satisfies it. He sees that with satisfaction he causes himself more and more harm, and he satisfies everything. Inexplicable hostility against ourselves! Some people are going to rebel against passion, but as soon as passion awakens with its demands, it immediately follows it. He gets his act together again and gives in again. This happens several times, and the success is always the same. An incomprehensible relaxation of moral strength! What is flattery and deception? The fact is that passion promises mountains of pleasure for self-satisfaction, but the fight against it promises nothing. But how many times has it been experienced that the satisfaction of passion does not bring happiness and peace, but torment and languor. She promises a lot, but gives nothing; and struggle promises nothing, but gives everything. If you have not experienced this, try it and you will see. But it’s our grief that we can’t muster the strength to experience it. The reason for this is self-pity. Self-pity is our most flattering traitor and enemy. The first manifestation of pride. We feel sorry for ourselves and destroy ourselves. We think that we are doing good to ourselves, but we are doing evil; and the more evil we do, the more it is desirable for us to do evil. That is why evil grows and brings our final destruction closer to us. Let us be inspired, brothers, and courageously go to the cross of self-crucifixion, through crucifixion and the eradication of passions and lusts. Let us reject self-pity and kindle the jealousy of self-torture. Let us take the heart of a doctor who, in need, makes cruel cuts and cauterizations to loved and revered persons. – I will not tell you the method and the entire course of the struggle. Get down to business, and it will explain everything and teach you everything. Bring to mind that peace, that joy and that light that will settle in the heart after overcoming the passions, and thereby kindle your jealousy to rebel against them. Light, peace and joy arise from the very beginning of entering into this struggle, and they all grow and rise until at the end they culminate in a peaceful dispensation of the heart in which God rests. And the God of peace truly abides with those who reach this degree. Then it turns out that the cross is definitely the tree of life. The tree of paradise remained in paradise; on the ground, instead of it, the tree of the cross was erected. The goal of this is the same: a person will eat and live. Come, cling to him with your lips and drink life from him. You will cling to the cross when, having rejected self-pity, you become jealous of self-crucifixion; and you will begin to drink life from it when you enter into a struggle with passions. Each overcoming of passion will be the same as receiving life-giving juices from the life-giving cross. Keep it up, you'll sooner get drunk and full of life. Marvelous is the property of self-crucifixion! It seems to take away, but while taking away, it gives; it seems to cut off, but by cutting off, it grafts; it seems to kill, but by killing, it lives. Exactly the Cross of Christ, by which death is trampled upon and life is granted. What a blessing, but what a lot of work!!! The first step is difficult - the first overcoming of oneself, the first determination to fight; and then, no matter the battle in battle, it gets easier and easier. And jealousy will flare up more strongly, and the ability to overcome will increase, and the enemy will weaken. As in ordinary warfare, warriors are sometimes afraid just to begin; and then they no longer look at anything, everything becomes handy and easy for them; So it is in spiritual warfare: just start, then the warfare will heat up and lighten itself. And then, the more zealous and lively the fights, the sooner the end of the battle and the closer the peace. Don't have enough strength to start? Pray. The Lord will send. Surround yourself with thoughts about the danger of remaining in passions, and you will drive yourself out of their darkness towards the light of freedom from them. Revive the feeling of torment, and you will be inflamed with annoyance at them and the desire to get rid of them. But most of all, having confessed your weakness before the Lord, stand and push at the door of His mercy, crying out for help. Help is coming! The Lord will look at you, and the light from His eyes will burn self-pity in you and kindle jealousy to cheerfully arm yourself against the passions. And then, even if the Lord is with us, who is against us? Heroic Lord! Having inspired us with zeal to enter into the feat of struggle against passions, grant us strength to resist it, so that under the sign of Your Cross we may wage good warfare, looking to You, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who through the cross has arranged salvation for us and given us life in it. Amen. It remains to explain to you the third type of cross that saves us - the cross of devotion to the will of God. I’ll say a word or two about him. A word or two to you, because the full teaching about it exceeds my strength. The most perfect Christians ascend to this cross. They know him; and they could speak about it clearly, completely and with power. Where can others say this? And it is impossible not to remember that any of you, having overcome one or two passions and somewhat calmed down from the anxieties inside, would not think that you have already done everything that should and is expected of Christians. No, and not everything is done yet. Those who have even completely cleansed themselves of passions have not yet performed the main Christian action, but have only prepared for it. You have cleansed yourself of passions: now offer yourself pure to God as a pure and immaculate sacrifice, which is the only one befitting Him the Most Pure. Look at Calvary. There, the cross of a prudent thief is the cross of cleansing oneself from passions, and the Cross of the Lord is the cross of a pure and immaculate sacrifice. And it is the fruit of devotion to the will of God - unquestioning, complete, irrevocable. Who lifted our Savior to the cross? This devotion. Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the cup passed by; but he expressed a decisive definition about this: “Not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). From His word: “I am,” those who came to bind Him fall (John 18:6). But then they knit Him. Why? Because He first bound Himself to devotion to the will of God. Under the cross, all creation trembles and the dead accept life; and He remained motionless on the cross: for He gave up His spirit to God. Such are all those who have grown into perfect men, who have reached the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ. They are all crucified, so to speak, according to the will of God. Every personal movement, thought, and desire is nailed onto it. Or these latter, in the usual sense and form, they do not have at all: everything that belonged to them died, being sacrificed by the will of God. What moves them is God's beck, God's inspiration, which, in only one way known to them, is imprinted in their hearts and determines all their activities. St. Apostle Paul, in relation to himself, depicts this state as follows: “I have been crucified with Christ: but I live, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:19, 20). As soon as he was crucified with Christ, he, an Apostle, a most perfect man, ceased to live himself; but Christ began to live in him. Or he became in such a position, about which he writes in another place: “God... is at work in us, both to will and to do good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). This is the height of Christian perfection that a person can achieve. He is the forerunner of the future state after the resurrection, when God will be all in all. Why is it that everyone who is worthy of achieving it often contradicts all the orders of earthly existence and either suffers persecution and torment, or becomes and is revered as holy fools, or retires to the desert. But in all these types of external fate, their internal one is one: united, with one God abiding in the heart. They live and act alone, hiding in the inner, deepest silence, in the complete absence of any movements. They say that high in the last reaches of our atmosphere, all movement of the earthly elements ceases. One universal element rests calmly there. This is the image of those who were crucified with Christ, who ceased to live their own lives and began to live only by Christ, or otherwise ascended to the cross of devotion to the will of God, which alone quality and acts in them with the denial of all personal discretions and actions. I have nothing more to tell you about this. And this is said just to hint to you that this is where the end is, this is where we need to be and what to achieve, and so that, knowing this, you will consider everything that you do not have and do not do good as nothing, if you have not reached this height of spiritual life, defined and expected from us. Many people think that Christianity is the same as other types of life; but it’s not that. It begins with repentance, culminates in the struggle against passions, and ends through the co-crucifixion of the pure inner man with Christ, immersion in God. “When you die,” says the Apostle, “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Here everything happens inside, invisible to people, and known only to conscience and God. There is nothing external here. It is, of course, a decent shell, but not a decisive witness, much less a producer of the inner. External good behavior is often the beautiful appearance of a coffin full of bones! Knowing this, let us stand, brethren, on Golgotha ​​at the crosses and begin to apply ourselves to them and them to ourselves, as we may to each. Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross of the Lord, is the image of those crusaders who are subject to external sorrows and hardships. Whom the prudent thief crucified and whom the Lord depicts on the cross, I just said before this: the first depicts those struggling with passions, and the Lord depicts perfect men, crucified in devotion to God. And who does the cross of the evil thief represent? Depicts those who work for passions. Their passions torment them, torment them, crucify them to death, without giving any consolation and any good hope. By these signs, everyone try on crosses for yourself, and determine for yourself by them who you are - Simon of Cyrene, or a prudent thief, or an imitator of Christ the Lord, or an evil thief, according to the passions that consume you? Whatever you find yourself, expect that to be the end for you. I will only add: get out of your head that through a life of comfort you can become what we should be in Christ. If true Christians experience joy, it is completely by accident; The most distinctive character of their life is suffering and illness, internal and external, voluntary and involuntary. Through many sorrows one must enter into the kingdom, and into that which appears within. The first step here is the turning of the will from bad to good, which constitutes the heart of repentance, reflected by mortal pain from the wound of contrition, from which blood then oozes throughout the continuation of the struggle with passions, and which closes after the acquisition of purity, which elevates the Christian to the cross of co-crucifixion with Christ in the will of God. Everything is sorrow and illness and hardship. We can say this: consolation is evidence of the indirect path, and sorrow is evidence of the right path. Considering this, rejoice, crusaders! What about you, those who are consoled? Abraham's word to the rich man in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Here you are comforted, while others suffer for the sake of Christ and His holy law; but in the next world it will be the other way around: those who follow the path of the cross will be comforted, and those who are comforted will suffer. You usually say: it’s like you can’t have fun, or allow yourself any pleasure. Yes, you do the main thing first, and then allow that too. Otherwise, the only thing someone has to do is - now there’s a ball, tomorrow there’s a theater, there’s a walk, and cheerful reading and conversation, and various entertainments - a transition from one pleasure to another. But about the main thing, about how to achieve what a Christian should be, there is no thought. What fruit can you expect from such a life? It’s as if our inner relationship to God in Christ will mature on its own, despite these external disturbances?! How can he mature? Does a candle burn in the wind? Will life end from taking poison? No. If you want good for yourself: give up pleasure, enter the path of the cross of repentance, burn out in the fire of self-crucifixion, temper yourself in the tears of heartfelt contrition - and you will become gold or silver or precious stone, and in due time you will be taken by the heavenly Master to adorn His most luminous and most worldly palaces. Amen. You might be interested in: