On the Exaltation of the Honest Cross

Every change, every transition from worse to better gives people great joy and pleasure. The desire for perfection is innate to human nature and therefore it naturally seeks the best and, when the opportunity presents itself, rushes to take advantage. Thus, it is precisely for people who have sailed on a stormy sea that it is pleasant to enter a quiet and calm harbor; for travelers it is pleasant to rest at a rest stop after a difficult journey; for people dejected by sadness, the change from a sad mood to a cheerful one is pleasant; Even more pleasant for the sick is recovery from illness and return of strength; those who are at enmity with someone take pleasure in the cessation of enmity and reconciliation; It is with great pleasure that everyone welcomes the coming of the day after the darkness of the night that preceded it. And we can say that any change brings more pleasure, the more it corresponds to the benefits and desires of people. This applies, by the way, to those pleasures that are given to us by God. And here, as is easy to see, pleasure is determined by those pleasant impressions that arise in us with any change we observe that coincides with our desires. Wheat, of course, is pleasant in itself; but it becomes even more pleasant when, thrown into the ground, worked with difficulty for it, it is then collected a hundredfold and with great joy, providing sufficiency in food. But during sowing, one grain is thrown to the mercy of fate! Likewise, the juice of the grapevine gives us all the more pleasure because here the drink is obtained from the tree through a change - the processing of the fruit. In fact, its branches and leaves are very bitter and astringent in taste, so that it is disgusting to even put it in your mouth, and the clusters that grow with branches and leaves on the same tree have such a pleasant taste that the drink obtained from them sweetens every sorrow and dispels every sadness. The same can be said about the olive, that ever-greening and ever-young tree. At a certain time, fruit appears on it, but not in the same way as usual on other trees, but in its own way - in a special way. First of all, the bud catches the eye, as if sprinkled with the smallest dust, and in the middle of it lies, like a grain, the fruit itself, and like clusters of grapes, the fruit appears at first in countless numbers, but as it grows, everything superfluous falls away as useless; then, until the very end, this fruit remains bitter in taste, and sometimes you can’t taste it, because you can’t pick it up. Thanks to this, it retains its juiciness and, after the bitterness has passed, it acquires such a pleasant taste that it is added as a seasoning to all sorts of delicacies and in everyday life not a single treat can do without it. In this way, all kinds of plants and seeds, by the changes that their fruits undergo, give everyone pleasure. If the change from worse to better is so pleasant, then we will now move on to an incomparably more sublime subject and see how many benefits the Cross of Christ has become for us, having brought about so many changes by the power of Him Crucified on it. In fact, if it is sad and painful to hear about the cross of the Lord (as an instrument of suffering), then the same cross is filled with bright joy for us, since it has become for us the cause not of suffering, but of liberation from suffering. If his name alone serves as a temptation for the Jews, and preaching about him turns out to be insane for the pagans, then for us believers, he reminds us of our salvation. And if in the church, when reading about the cross and the memory of the sufferings on the cross, indignation, combined with regret, is aroused among the people who believe in the cross, and a murmur arises, then these feelings do not relate to the cross itself, but to those whom unbelief has made crucifiers. The cross is the salvation of the Church, the cross is the praise of those who put their trust in it, the cross is our deliverance from the evils that have overcome us and the firstfruits of the blessings given to us, the cross is the reconciliation of his enemies with God and the conversion of sinners to Christ. By the cross we were delivered from enmity and by the cross we were confirmed in friendship with God; by the cross we are freed from the violence of the devil and by the cross we are delivered from death and destruction. That is why the people, at first, hearing about the cross, murmured, and then, hearing about the resurrection, moved from murmur to joy, loudly proclaiming glory. The cross combined people with the face of angels, making their nature alien to any corruptible matter and giving them the opportunity to lead an imperishable life. After all, they are no longer called people, but gods after the cross: “I said: you are gods, and you are all sons of the Most High” (Ps. 81:6), - not slaves, but friends and brothers, they are called: “I will proclaim Your name to my brothers” (Ps. 21:23). Do you see what a difference the cross has made? But in order to understand the power of the cross even more clearly, imagine what happened before the cross and what happened after the cross - and then you will appreciate its power and effect. Before the cross, the Son was unknown, but today, when the cross is preached, the Son is named, and the Father is known through the Son; before the cross, the devil was worshiped, and now, with the preaching of the cross, the devil has been deposed and the demons are taking flight; Before the cross, we were mired in fornication and debauchery, and now, after the preaching of the cross, we have not only abandoned fornication, but also exalted ourselves over marriage, and we have adopted and observed virginity, which we did not know before. When the sermon about the cross had not yet been heard, the devil gathered the Jews against Christ; Now the cross is preached - and the apostles bring the same Jews to Christ by faith. Before the preaching of the cross, death had dominion over us; Now the cross is preached - and death is despised, as if it did not exist, but we have loved eternal life. Before the cross we were strangers to paradise, but with the appearance of the cross the thief was immediately awarded paradise. Oh, the great power of the cross! What changes she made in the human race! From such darkness the cross brought us to the unstoppable light, from death it called us to eternal life, from corruption it reborn us to incorruption. The eyes of our hearts are no longer covered by the darkness of ignorance, but through the cross are open to the light of understanding; The ears of the deaf are no longer closed by unbelief, for the deaf have heard the word of the Lord, and the blind have received their sight to see the glory of God. This is what was accomplished by the cross, this is what was given to us for the sake of the cross! In fact, what good have we received apart from the cross, what good has been given to us not through the cross? Through the cross we learned piety and came to know the power of the divine nature; through the cross we have understood the truth of God and comprehend the virtue of chastity; through the cross we came to know each other and, having previously been distant, were united with Christ and partook of the grace of the Holy Spirit; through the cross we learned the power of love and do not refuse to die for each other; Thanks to the cross, we despised all the blessings of the world and counted them for nothing, expecting future blessings and accepting the invisible as visible. The cross is preached, and faith in God is confessed, and the truth is spread throughout the universe: the cross is preached, and the martyrs struggle, and confession for Christ is established; the cross is preached, and the resurrection is given, and life appears, and the kingdom of heaven is confirmed, and the unfaithful believe in the cross—even those to whom the cross seemed irreconcilable with life achieve salvation. The culprit of all this for us is the cross, and thanks to it we have learned to sing praises to God. So what is higher than the cross? What is more beneficial than it for our souls? Let us not be ashamed of the name of the cross, but let us confess it with all boldness, since through it we are called to salvation and are brought to eternal life. Do you see what changes this cross has made in the world for its salvation? He put an end to his lawless deeds, stopped his godless teachings - and the world no longer pleases the devil's laws and is not bound by the bonds of death. God came to earth and cut down the fury of passions; established His laws and taught us what is useful and necessary; established the commandment of chastity and eradicated voluptuousness; he drew the boundaries of holiness, protected innocence with law and condemned lawless fornication to be trampled upon; sanctified the rules of abstinence and overthrew the rule of lust; by divine teaching he subverted the power of passions and diminished every sin generated by lust. Since fornication is the invention of idols, and their deceit gives rise to all corruption, He cuts off the very root of iniquity in order to put an end to the stream of wickedness. He abolished the vile service of idols, destroyed lawless customs, dispelled all the tricks, baits and embellishments of wickedness; He exposed deception and untruth and stopped the streams of destruction; He cleansed souls from the thorns of wickedness that had taken root in them and, like grains of wheat, brought seeds of godliness to make our souls bear fruit of righteousness; He has given us an abundance of spiritual food and filled our spiritual granaries with the divine fruits of heavenly wisdom; He introduced the faithful to the shrine of the Spirit and thanks to him each of us became a vessel of divine sanctification and a source of divine beauty. We acquired all this thanks to the cross, we were awarded all these blessings for the sake of the cross. We learned all this through the cross and learned all this thanks to it. But in order to fully appreciate the power of the cross and the consequences that it caused, pay attention to what happened at its foot, and you will be convinced that these were indeed deeds accomplished by divine power. The cross is erected against Life, but through the cross life is given to the world and death is put to death by it; the cross is erected against the Truth, but thanks to the cross the whole world is filled with truth; the cross is being prepared for the humiliation of the Lord, but the Lord spread out His hands on it and drew everyone to Himself. Christ hangs on the cross - and the devil is killed; Christ is stretched out on the cross - and the sign of salvation is given to the whole world; Christ is nailed to the cross - and every soul is released from its bonds; Christ languishes on the cross - and all creation is freed from the work of corruption; Christ gave up his ghost on the cross - and a new miracle was revealed to the world: the light of the sun was darkened. For the unbelievers, this is a sign that darkness is prepared for them on the day of judgment, and for the faithful, this is a sign that for them darkness is being replaced by daylight. This thought is expressed in one prophetic saying, which reads: “And it will come to pass in that day, says the Lord God: I will cause the sun to go down at noon and darken the earth in the midst of the bright day. And I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentation” (Amos 8:9–10). Do you see, beloved, what deepest mysterious meaning this prophetic word contains? It is equally applicable to both, i.e. both to the Jews who were under the law, and to the pagans who committed their iniquities outside the law. The first, celebrating according to the law, will spend their holidays in lamentation, and the place of all songs will be replaced by a cry about Jerusalem. The service of God in Jerusalem will be abolished and the celebration of holidays in it will cease when the end of everything comes, after the coming of Christ and His atoning sufferings. That is why God says through the prophet: “I will turn your holidays into mourning and all your songs into lamentation.” The Jews will be deprived of their rightful property and given into slavery to every nation because they did not believe the divine and extraordinary preaching of the cross. The pagans will also cry, confessing their sins, but they will cry with a cry worthy of gratification. It is said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). And so they will mourn those vain holidays and unholy songs in which their service to unclean demons was expressed. Notice how the repentant pagan, who formerly celebrated idols, now turns his holiday into lamentation and repentance for the evil that he did, and with tears repeats this prophetic word: “we lie in our shame, and our shame covers us,” because we have increased our wickedness (Jer. 3:25). “We acknowledge... the iniquity of our fathers” (Jer. 14:20). So, we too, with good weeping and regret for our vices depicted above, will fall to the cross, placing our hopes on it, so that with the guidance of the cross and with our thoughts directed toward heaven, drawing closer to Christ our Savior, we may be honored to be near God, in the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria.