Make life “crucicentric”translated

Reflections of the rector of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Rakov, Archpriest Sergius Lepin, Doctor of Theology.

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is not just a memory of an event that happened in the distant past, not here and not with us. It is also a reminder of what must certainly happen in our lives. This is a holiday of the present and the future: to make your life “crucicentric”, to lift the Cross of Christ above all the circumstances of your life, to look at the world as if “through Golgotha”, constantly remembering the price by which we were redeemed from the slavery of death, weighing everything in this world from the point of view of this very price... I am talking about the “personal Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord” - this is an important component of the idea of ​​a “personal meeting with Christ”.

The Cross of Christ is erected in our lives through bearing our own cross - as the Savior commanded us: “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Scripture tells us about the need to be crucified with Christ (see: Gal. 2:19, Rom. 6:6), so that, having died with Him to the world of sin, together with Him we will be resurrected for eternal life (see: Rom. 6:8). This does not mean that we should seek suffering for the sake of suffering. But…