Крест свой и Крест Христов

The Lord said to His disciples: “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me” (Matthew 16:24). What does “your cross” mean? Why is this “own cross,” that is, each person’s individual one, also called the “Cross of Christ”? The cross is “one’s own”: the sorrows and suffering of earthly life, which are unique to each person. The cross is “one’s own”: fasting, vigil and other pious deeds by which the flesh is humbled and the spirit is subdued. These feats must be in accordance with the strengths of each, and each has their own. The cross is “one’s own”: sinful ailments, or passions, which each person has their own! We are born with some of them, others we become infected with on the path of earthly life. “The Cross of Christ” is the teaching of Christ. “Your cross” is vain and fruitless, no matter how heavy it may be, if through following Christ it is not transformed into the “Cross of Christ.” “His cross” is made for the disciple of Christ “by the Cross of Christ”: because the disciple of Christ is firmly convinced that Christ is vigilantly watching over him, that Christ allows him sorrows as a necessary and inevitable condition of Christianity, that no sorrow would come close to him if it were not allowed by Christ, that through sorrows a Christian is assimilated to Christ, made a partaker of His fate on earth, and therefore in heaven. “His cross” is made for the disciple of Christ “by the Cross of Christ”: because a true disciple of Christ considers the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ to be the only goal of his life. These all-holy commandments are made for him by the cross, on which he constantly crucifies his old man “with his passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). From here it is clear why, in order to accept the cross, you must first deny yourself even to the point of destroying your soul. Sin has become so strongly and abundantly assimilated into our fallen nature that the Word of God does not stop calling it the soul of fallen man. In order to accept the cross, one must first deny the body its whimsical wishes, providing it with one thing necessary for existence; one must recognize one’s truth as the most cruel untruth before God, one’s reason as complete unreason, and, finally, having surrendered to God with all the strength of faith, having devoted oneself to the unceasing study of the Gospel, renounce one’s will. He who has made such a renunciation of himself is capable of accepting his cross. With submission to God, calling on God's help to strengthen his weakness, he looks without fear or embarrassment at the approaching sorrow, prepares to endure it generously and courageously, hopes that through it he will become a partaker of the sufferings of Christ, will achieve the mysterious confession of Christ not only with his mind and heart, but also with his very deed, with his life itself. The cross is still painful as long as he remains with his cross. When he is transformed into the Cross of Christ, he receives extraordinary lightness: “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light,” said the Lord (Matthew 11:30). The cross is placed on the shoulder of a disciple of Christ, when a disciple of Christ recognizes himself as worthy of the sorrows sent to him by Divine providence. A disciple of Christ then bears his cross correctly when he recognizes that it is the sorrows sent down to him, and not others, that are necessary for his education in Christ and salvation. Patient bearing of one's cross is true vision and consciousness of one's sin. There is no self-delusion in this consciousness. But he who recognizes himself as a sinner, and at the same time murmurs and cries out from his cross, proves that with a superficial consciousness of sin he is only flattering himself, deceiving himself. Patient bearing of one's cross is true repentance. Crucified on the cross! Confess to the Lord the righteousness of His judgments. By accusing yourself, justify the judgment of God, and you will receive remission of your sins. Crucified on the cross! Know Christ; - and the gates of heaven will open to you. From your cross, praise the Lord, rejecting from yourself every thought of complaint and murmuring, rejecting it as a crime and blasphemy. From your cross, thank the Lord for your priceless gift, for your cross, for your precious destiny, for your destiny to imitate Christ through your suffering. Do theology from the cross: because the cross is the true and only school, repository and throne of true Theology. Outside the cross there is no living knowledge of Christ. Do not look for Christian perfection in human virtues. It is not there: it is hidden in the Cross of Christ 398. His cross changes into the Cross of Christ when a disciple of Christ carries it with an active consciousness of his sinfulness, which requires execution - when he carries it with thanksgiving to Christ, with the glorification of Christ. From doxology and thanksgiving, spiritual consolation comes to the sufferer; thanksgiving and doxology become the most abundant source of incomprehensible, imperishable joy, which bubbling with grace in the heart, pouring out into the soul, pouring out into the body itself. The Cross of Christ, only in appearance, for carnal eyes, is a cruel field. For a disciple and follower of Christ, it is a field of highest spiritual pleasure. So great is this pleasure that sorrow is completely drowned out by pleasure, and the follower of Christ, in the midst of the most severe languor, feels only pleasure 399. Young Mavra said to her young husband Timothy, who was enduring terrible torment, and invited her to take part in martyrdom: “I am afraid, my brother, that I will not be afraid when I see the terrible torment and the angry hegemon, so that I will not be exhausted in patience in my youth.” The martyr answered her: “Trust in our Lord Jesus Christ, and your torment will be oil poured on your body, and the spirit of dew in your bones, alleviating all your illnesses.”400 The cross is the power and glory of all the saints from the ages. The cross is a healer of passions, a destroyer of demons. The cross is deadly for those who have not transformed their cross into the Cross of Christ, who from their cross murmur against Divine Providence, blaspheme it, and give themselves up to hopelessness and despair. Unconfessed and unrepentant sinners die an eternal death on their cross, deprived of the impatience of true life, life in God. They are removed from their cross only in order to descend with their souls into the eternal grave: into the dungeons of hell. The Cross of Christ lifts up from the ground the disciple of Christ crucified on it. The disciple of Christ, crucified on his cross, philosophizes on high, lives in heaven with his mind and heart, and contemplates the mysteries of the Spirit in Christ Jesus our Lord. “If anyone wants to come after Me,” said the Lord, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross and come after Me.” Amen. Venerable Mark the Ascetic. The Word on the Spiritual Law, ch. 31. Sequence of the twelve psalms, prayer of Saint Eustratius. You might be interested in: