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It is worthy and righteous to worship the Cross of Christ, beloved listeners! For by this blessed tree “death was slain” and “life was given.” By the first tree of paradise we were put to death, but by the tree of the godfather we received life. We were the first to be expelled from paradise, but the second, as if on some ladder, we ascend to heaven. The enemy was the first to defeat us; with the same blessed tree of the Cross of the Lord we defeat our enemies. Therefore, this blessed tree is worthy of veneration. If the weapon with which David once defeated and beheaded Goliath was in great veneration and was kept with honor behind the altar in Solomon’s temple, then all the more worthy of veneration and worship is the weapon of the cross, with which Christ the Lord defeated not the man Goliath, but the Goliath of hell - the devil with all his army. Just as Goliath was proud and thought that the Israelites had no one who could defeat him, and, however, was defeated and beheaded by the meek and young David in order to suffer greater shame, so the proud devil was proud and thought that no one could defeat him, for he defeated all people from Adam until the very coming of Christ. Just as the adversary, when he defeats the strongest and bravest warriors of any king of the earth, rather defeats the rest of his warriors: he kills some, pursues others, takes others captive, so the adversary of the human race - the devil, having first defeated in paradise the strong, as created by the hands of God and therefore not so prone and subject to sin, our first parents Adam and Eve, he defeats the rest of the people more easily: killing some with sins and iniquities, others persecuting and enslaving, taking others into captivity. He inspired Cain to kill the righteous Abel, and he gave the whole world to the power of sin before the global flood. He persecuted and defeated the holy prophets and patriarchs, he captured the dead and imprisoned them in the prisons of hell. In short, none of the people could resist him until Christ the Lord was crucified on the tree of the cross and, like the meek David, defeated him with His crucifixion. Have you read in the Divine Scripture that any of the prophets or patriarchs cast out demons from those possessed by demons? Only David, when the devil was tormenting Saul, kept him from this torment for a while by playing the harp, but he also could not drive him out. And the devil did not torment Saul until David played, and when he stopped playing, the devil immediately took possession again and tormented Saul. Just as an unarmed man cannot resist an armed man and goes where the armed man leads him, and does what he commands, so before the coming of Christ, while people did not have the weapon of the godfather, unarmed they could not fight the devil and almost everyone followed him. For the whole world was in idolatry, except for the chosen people of Israel: only they alone knew the True God, and even then not all of them, since among the people of Israel many fell into the service of Baal and the golden calf and, in the words of the Psalmist: “they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons” (Ps. 105:37), and not to God. The devil blinded the human race so much that they not only worshiped idols and graven images made in the image of man (I do not say in the image of honest or dishonest people, like the idols of Venus and Cupid), but even those made in the image of animals, such as reptiles and birds, and other dumb unclean animals, they gave honor as to God, and also worshiped soulless creatures instead of God: the sun, the moon, fire, water, stones and trees. Thus the devil blinded the human race, and so that people would not recognize their blindness, the demon inhabited idols, seduced them with his answers, spoke to them to deceive them and to their destruction, and led them after him with his lusts. An adversary, when he captures the soldiers of a king, commands that the captives honor and obey him, and not the former king, from whom they were free. In the same way, the devil first captivated people so that they would transgress the commandments of God and commit lawlessness, and then commanded that the captives apostatize from God, honor his idols and make sacrifices to them. When Christ the Lord was crucified on Calvary on the tree of the cross, immediately all the idols fell, the demons trembled and were defeated, and people turned to the faith of Christ. The earth is no longer defiled by the sacrifices of idols, and the air is no longer polluted by the foul smoke emanating from the victims of demons. For Christ the Lord stretched out His hands in the air and lowered His feet to the earth to sanctify both the air and the earth with His Blood. The priests of Baal no longer cry out loudly, as they cried out and tormented their bodies under Elijah the prophet. People no longer sacrifice their sons and daughters to demons, but offer a true sacrifice to the True God, as it is fitting to offer to Him, the only Creator and Creator. True, in the primal Church, Christians had great zeal and love for God, and not only men, but also wives went to martyrdom, as if for some kind of pleasure, forgetting their feminine weakness. What else can I say? What labors, what deeds the apostles, saints and saints performed for the sake of the one love of God! In modern times, love has faded away in the hearts of men, and in its place iniquities have multiplied, according to the words of Christ: “Because iniquity multiplies, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). For many, the fear of God has also disappeared, for no one goes to Church to pray to God with fear and trembling, according to the prophetic admonition: “Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice before Him with trembling” (Ps. 2:11). They walk around for conversations, for laughter, for various outrages, spinning around, looking into the faces of those standing, as if in a tavern or in some dishonest human house! What am I saying: in the human? And in a human home, an honest person stands or sits courteously and modestly, and if he starts a conversation or asks the owner of the house for something, he speaks decorously and courteously. If a servant or subordinate comes to his master, for example, to a prince or boyar, then with what fear, with what trepidation he stands before him or asks for something! There is nothing to say about how they come to the King! With trepidation. Do they dare to turn around or laugh, or riot, or talk to someone else when they are talking to the King or asking him for something, or begging for forgiveness for crimes? And this is truly the right thing to do. But if anyone committed outrages in front of the king, his head would immediately be taken off his shoulders! When they come to God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, they have no fear and become bold. The prophet laughs at such people, saying: “There they trembled with fear, where there was no fear” (Ps. 52:6). They fear a person who can kill the body, and do not fear God, “Who can cast both soul and body into fiery Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28). They are not afraid of the One who, in the same place where they are rampaging, can command the earth to part and devour them like Dathan and Aviron, or destroy them in the blink of an eye. Maybe they think that only a person can be angry when someone commits outrages in his house, but God should not be angry? But let us all know and know that Christ was never so angry at anything as at the outrage in the church. Christ the Lord never beat anyone in His life, but when he saw that people were committing purchases and other atrocities in the church, he immediately took a whip and drove everyone out of the church, saying with great anger: “My house will be called a house of prayer; and you made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13). About Christ the Savior! If You had now entered Your church and seen what atrocities people were committing in it, would you not have done the same, or more? I don't know, would You spare anyone? For there is great fearlessness in the church today! They are turning Your house into a den of thieves, into a dishonest house! Where would you like to meet someone? In the church. Where can we talk? In the church. Where can you joke and laugh? In the church. Where do they greet, congratulate each other, ask about health, wife, children and others? In the church. As if the church exists for this reason, so that people gather there for politics and disorder, and not for praying to God! The Holy Church teaches us with what fear we should stand in church. “Standing in the church,” she says, “stand in heaven as if” (Troparion at Matins), that is, every Christian should stand in the church as if he did not know where he stood: completely in inspired meditation, so that with his body he was in the church, and with his mind he seemed to be standing in heaven, and pray as they pray in heaven. But how do they pray in heaven? Let's ask the one who was in heaven. The Apostle Paul was “caught up to the third heaven,” but he does not inform us about this, since he cannot say. “Eye has not seen,” he says, “no ear has heard” (1 Cor. 2:9). Let's ask someone else who was there or to whom the secrets of God were revealed. Saint John the Theologian saw many of the mysteries of God in revelation, let us ask him. He tells us: “There was silence in heaven” (Rev. 8:1), that is, great silence: everyone is silent, everyone stands in fear before the Throne of God. What else have you seen, Saint John the Theologian? I saw, he says, “twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb” (Rev. 5:8), I saw that they only fell, worshiping the Throne of God. Let us also ask the prophets, for “with two or three witnesses every word will take place” (Deut. 19:15). The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel saw how and with what fear the Cherubim stood before God: they covered their faces with two wings, covered their legs with two, and flew with two. By this covering of the face and legs, the holy fathers understand the great reverence of the Cherubim before God. Just as a small person, coming to a great one, for example, to the King of the earth, is covered in shame so that the King does not see his nakedness, so the Cherubim do the same before the face of God. The Creator of the Trinity canons in the Octoechos, in tone 3, canto 9, according to the testimony of Saint Mitrophan, speaks of them like this: “They fast fast before the impregnable light and sing incessantly crying out: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord.” Every person must pray in the same way, having before his eyes the example of the Cherubim and Seraphim, as Saint Chrysostom admonishes: “Think about this, man, rise from the earth and ascend to heaven, for you stand with the Seraphim and sing with the Seraphim. Whether you pray to God or praise God, you stand in heaven among the Seraphim: “In the church we stand, in heaven we stand.” With them you too spread your wings, with them you fly around the Throne of the Tsar” (Homily 6, “On the Incomprehensible”). By flying on wings, according to Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, we mean the feat of prayer, which we perform with the body, and the thought of God, performed with the mind, so that the praise of God is not accomplished either without bodily labor or without mental attention. This is how one should pray according to the instructions of the above-mentioned saints. Let us think, do we pray like this, or are we being more outrageous? Where the Seraphim exclaim with fear: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord!” - there we talk to each other: one about cattle, the other about trade, the other about horses or dogs, the other about other nasty things. Where the Cherubim tremble, mortal man stands without any fear. Where the saints fall on their faces, the worldly sinner shows insolence, and even the priestly rank itself stands near the throne of God without fear and without fear, which I am greatly amazed at, especially at the long-suffering of God. I know that in the Old Law, anyone who committed outrages at the Ark of the Lord or even just touched it was executed by sudden death. I also know that the throne on which Christ the Lord is invisibly present in the mystical gifts has great honor and dignity, for the Tabernacle of the Lord was only the image and shadow of the throne of the Lord, but now the Lord Himself is truly present on the throne. However, He does not execute those who commit violence at the altar with sudden death. But the prayer of such people is not prayer, but sin and lawlessness, according to the prophetic word: “And let his prayer become sin” (Ps. 109:7). It is better not to go to church than to offend God and stand before Him without fear, for such people only irritate, and do not beg God and prevent others from praying. Some God-fearing people would like to pray and listen to the word of God, but they cannot because of vain conversations. Who are those like who do not pray themselves and who prevent others from praying? It seems that they are like the devil. But perhaps one of my listeners will say: “I would be glad to pray, but I can’t, apparently the devil is inspiring me to talk in church.” Don't deny your guilt, man! You yourself are guilty, and the devil cannot force you if you yourself do not want it; the devil himself is powerless. Before the coming of Christ, he was strong, as we already know, and no one could resist him, since people did not yet have weapons against the devil. Now we have the Cross of Christ: sign yourself with the sign of the cross, and it will immediately leave you. Let us listen to what Saint John the Theologian says: “Satan is bound for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:2). But what are you bound by, if not by the power of the godmother? And how can he harm you if he is chained? If he does harm, then you must bind him, that is, put on yourself the sign of the Cross of the Lord, and he will be bound. If the devil inspires thoughts, if you think anything evil in your mind, put the sign of the cross on your mind, and he will leave you. If it forces you to look around with your eyes, put up the sign of the cross, and it will run away from your eyes. Whether it sits on your tongue or on your lips so that you can speak, drive it away with the cross. If the vain words of those talking reach your ears, protect your ears with the cross of Christ. Saint John of Damascus also advises you this, speaking about the Cross of Christ like this: “It was given to us as a sign on our foreheads, like circumcision to Israel, for by it we, the faithful, are distinguished from the infidels and are marked. He is a shield, a weapon and a weapon against the devil. He is a seal so that the Destroyer will not touch us.” In a similar way, Saint Ephraim says in word 103: “Let us place the sign of the life-giving Cross on our foreheads and on our toes, and on our lips, and on all our members, with this let us be marked and armed.” Saint Chrysostom confirms the same, saying: “The cross should be depicted on the forehead and in thoughts with great care, for it is not just proper to place it with a finger, but first of all by will with great faith. And if you imagine him this way, not one of the unclean spirits will be able to stand near you, seeing the sword that wounded him, seeing the sword that destroyed him. For if we, seeing the places where the condemned are flogged, are filled with horror, then think how the devil and demons tremble, seeing the weapon with which Christ crushed all their strength and cut off the head of the dragon.” For this reason, the Church now lifts up and erects the Cross of Christ, so that, fighting with this banner, you will defeat your enemies. For the warriors of the King of the Earth, when they stay close to the military banner, are better able to take up arms against their adversaries, and the warrior who moves away from him is more likely to die. To Tsar Constantine the Great, when he could not defeat Maxentius, the sign of the Cross appeared in the sky and a voice was heard: “With this sign conquer!” And when he ordered the sign of the cross to be depicted on all weapons, he immediately defeated the enemies. The Cross of Christ now also appears to us in church heaven, so that with this sign we too may defeat our enemies and stay close to it. The Cross of Christ is lifted up and erected so that we conquer and defeat demons, and we ourselves, who have fallen, “arise and are corrected” (Ps. 19:9), according to the words of the Lord: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Me” (John 12:32). The cross of Christ is erected and lifted up so that, looking at it, we may be healed if we are wounded by the sting of the serpent. And Moses commanded those who were bitten by serpents in the desert and those who were dying to look at the copper serpent, which he made at the command of God, and those who looked at it were healed, and those who did not want to look died. That serpent was the image of the now erected Cross of Christ, and those who look at it will also be healed, and those who do not look will perish. The Cross of Christ is lifted up and erected so that, looking at it, we remember and contemplate the sufferings of Christ, for for the sake of our salvation He took them upon Himself, and so that we thank Him for His immeasurable mercy towards us. The cross of Christ is erected and lifted up so that we worship him and know how we have received salvation. But it seems to me that there is no one in the Christian race who would doubt that we should worship the Cross of Christ. And only some unreasonable people have idle doubts and the question of which cross should be bowed to: an eight-pointed one or a four-pointed one? This question of madmen is not worth answering, for from the Holy Scriptures, especially the Old Testament, this is clear from the former transformations of the Cross of Christ. For when Moses stretched out his hands and defeated Amalek, was he not an image of the four-pointed Cross of the Lord? And Joshua, when he defeated his enemies, did not he foreshadow the four-pointed Cross? In the same way, Jacob, the Old Testament patriarch, when he blessed the sons of Joseph - Manasseh and Ephraim - laid his hands on them, folded in the form of the four-pointed Cross of the Lord. There are many other Old Testament transformations of the Cross, which we do not have time to list in detail. In the New Testament Holy Scripture there is also much clear evidence in many places. This day at Matins, in the stichera for the veneration of the cross after the great doxology, the following is sung: “The four-pointed world is today sanctified, to Thy four-parted uplifted Cross, O Christ God!” In the Moscow canon, in the canon of the honorable Cross, the creation of St. Gregory of Sinaite, the first song says the following: “Your height, life-giving Cross, beats the airy prince and the depth of the entire abyss slays the serpent, imagining the breadth again, overthrowing the worldly prince with your strength.” Here the four-pointed Cross is indicated, having height, depth and breadth. In the same canon, in the eighth song, we read: “Thou hast raised up our fallen nature by Christ crucified, and having united, the height of the Divine, the depth unspeakable: Thou art a sign of Christ, abundant in the Cross, and in immeasurable breadth and a sign of the Incomprehensible Trinity, life-bearer!” Here in the Cross of Christ it is not the eight-pointedness that is glorified, but the four-pointedness: height, depth and breadth, and therefore the Holy Cross is called the three-component, tremulous, blessed, image of the Trinitarian Trinity. For by height he signifies the Father who dwells on high; in depth - the Son who descended even to hell; breadth and length together signify the Holy Spirit, “who is everywhere and fulfills everything.” Therefore, when we mark ourselves with the sign of the cross, we say: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” I will pass over other evidence in silence. Anyone who wants can find something similar to what is indicated in many places in the holy books. I will give some more evidence from the patristic writings that will help me in confirming the above truth. Saint Athanasius the Great in the book “The Rod”, in question forty-one, says: “We worship the image of the cross, composed of two trees and divided into four sides.” Saint John of Damascus, in the fourth book on the Orthodox faith, in chapter one, writes: “As the four edges of the Cross are held and united in the middle center, so the height and depth, length and breadth are maintained by God’s power.” In the Sunday Teaching Gospel, printed in Moscow, in the word on the Exaltation of the Venerable Cross it is written: “The image of the cross, divided from the middle into four sides, shows that everything is held together by Divine power: the upper is held by the upper end, the lower by the lower, the middle by two sides, that is, by the two ends of the most honorable tree of the cross.” And in another place: “Blessed Paul explains to the Ephesians, saying: “That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height” (Eph. 3:18), meaning by the heights the heavenly, by the depths the lower, by the breadth and longitude the middle ends contained by the omnipotent power.” Saint Chrysostom interprets these Pauline words as follows: “He mentions breadth and length, depth and height for the knowledge of the greatness of God’s love, how it extends everywhere.” And in this city of Rostov there is a cross, which was given by Saint John the Theologian to the Monk Abraham, and this cross is not eight-pointed. If anyone doesn't believe it, let him go and see it for himself. For other evidence about the four-pointed cross, see the book called “Rod”, as well as in the book called “Uvet”. But, in addition, God created this visible world in the likeness of the four-limbed cross, for He created it divided into four parts: east, west, north and south. And God created man in the likeness of the four-pointed cross, for when a person stretches out his hands, he has the appearance of a four-pointed cross. This is how much evidence in favor of the four-pointed cross there is in the holy fathers and in church books. But I will also ask the schismatics themselves, who doubt the four-pointed nature of the cross, with what cross are they baptized? I won’t even talk about folding fingers now, because I don’t have enough time, and I’ll put off talking about that until another time. Let them be baptized out of their stubbornness with the fold of their fingers the way they want, although they shouldn’t do it! I'm only talking about what kind of cross they put on themselves: four-pointed or eight-pointed? When they place their fingers on their foreheads, they mark the upper end of the cross; when they are placed on the belly, they mark the lower end of the cross; placing the hand on the shoulders, they designate two ends placed wide. If they want there to be an eight-pointed cross, why don’t they cross themselves with an eight-pointed one? To depict an eight-pointed cross, it would be necessary to place one position - in longitude - on the forehead and on the belly, and three positions in latitude - one on the forehead, another on the shoulders and a third on the belly - but they don’t cross themselves like that? Then, if someone blesses someone, he blesses them with a four-pointed cross! All things are blessed with this cross. I spoke this way about the four-pointed cross not because I completely rejected the eight-pointed or six-pointed cross, but in order to stop the mouths of madmen and those who do not know what the power of veneration of the Cross of Christ is. In particular, this must be shown to explain why we venerate other holy things, such as, in particular, the Holy Cross. We honor, for example, the Holy Gospel, which contains many things: paper and ink with which the words of Christ and the entire history of the life of Christ and the first Christianity were written on paper. Sometimes it is overlaid with silver, gold and valuable brocade. What do we honor when we worship the holy Gospel, and what is the power of worshiping it? Do we honor silver and gold or brocade and paper? I think that not a single Orthodox Christian will say this. What do we honor? We honor the words of Christ, the teaching of Christ and the entire history of Christ’s life, and, therefore, for this reason we honor the entire Gospel. Then, when we venerate a holy icon, for example, an icon of Christ or the Mother of God, or some saint, what do we venerate? The icon also contains many things: a board, paints used by the icon painter, and an image of the prototype. What do we honor in it? Is it a board, or paints, or an image, for the sake of which we venerate the entire icon? If we venerate it for the sake of depicting the prototype, then the madness of some people is clear who do not want to venerate new icons and venerate only old, smoky icons, as well as new ones, when they are smoked with smoke. They venerate not the image of the prototype in the icon, but smoke, blackness, dirt and soot, and speaking consistently, they are not Christians, but idolaters. From the above, it becomes clear the madness of those who honor only the image that is made on the board, and do not want to honor the images made on canvas, paper or other things. And such people worship not an image, but a board and a tree, and are idolaters, forgetting that Christ the Lord Himself gave His image to King Abgar not on a board, but on a canvas. But let it be known that we do not reject ancient icons, but we honor them, especially miraculous ones. However, we honor them not for their blackness or antiquity, but for the sake of God’s miracles, we honor images, for God can work miracles through new icons. But if an ancient icon has become dilapidated and smoky, it must be cleaned, washed and renewed, so that what is depicted on it is clearly visible to everyone who comes. For how can I worship an icon if I don’t know whose it is? To whom shall I lift my mind? When we bow to an icon or kiss it, we must bow to it with our bodies and raise our minds to the prototype, that is, to the one whose icon it is. For example: with my body I worship the icon of Christ, and my mind soars to Christ Himself; If I worship the icon of the Mother of God with my body, then my mind should fly up to the Mother of God Herself, as if I were standing before Her Herself, present in heaven. For the worship and veneration of the icon, according to Saint Basil, relates and goes back to the prototype, that is, to the one whose icon is. For example, the worship of the icon of Christ goes back to Christ Himself, and when I bow to the icon of Christ, I do not separate the image from the prototype and bow at the same time to both the image and the prototype. But if the appearance of the image is not clear, I do not know to whom I will bow. In this case, if they depicted the devil on the icon and smoked it, then others, not knowing that the devil is depicted here, would venerate his image and bow to him. In modern times, some gentlemen are ashamed to place an icon of Christ or the Mother of God in their homes, and put up shameless images of ancient idols of Venus or Diana, or others, or new ones, for example, the Queen of Spain, or England, or France. And if some ignoramus came and saw these wicked images, already smoky, then not knowing that these images were not God’s, but worldly, he could, out of his ignorance, worship them as God’s and holy images. So, in order to clearly distinguish whose image is, who needs to bow and who does not, the appearance of the image must be clear, and for its sake the holy icons must be venerated. Just as someone who has made an image of his father, mother, grandfather or great-grandfather does not talk about the thing on which the image is made, but, looking at the image, remembers his father, remembers what he was like, and calculates his virtues, so he who looks at an icon should contemplate the image of God, and not talk about the colors or the thing on which it is made. The image must be revered for the sake of its prototype, and not deify the icon itself. This is what true Christian worship of icons consists of, which is why the Seventh Ecumenical Council anathematized both those who do not worship icons and those who worship incorrectly and deify icons. Amen.