My God, my God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?" - A Reflection on the Cross of Our Lord
As Orthodox Christians we not only adore the
Cross, but we see it as the very path which leads to our salvation. At the heart of the way of the Cross we walk
is the Slavonic word podvig, which translates as struggle, but, it can also
mean asceticism. The Cross of Christ
which is the Cross we must also take up and bear is a podvig.
Christ struggled with accepting his Cross and
had to deny his will when he took up his Cross and was crucified for all
mankind in the greatest ascetical act the world has ever known or will
know. We can be certain of this because
when Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane he said, “Father if it is your will
take this cup away from me; nevertheless not my will but yours be done.” (Luke
21.42) What we see in this scripture
story is the very way of the Cross that we as Christians are called to. It is evident that Christ in his humanity was
reluctant to face the way of his Cross, but, he knew it was the will of his
Father in heaven. It is also the will of
God that all of us here, as followers of Christ, walk the way of our Lord’s
Cross. Christ tells us, “Take my yoke
upon you…For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11. 29-30) This is the struggle of what it means to
follow our Saviour. His yoke and his
Cross are one in the same. Long before Christ
was crucified he taught his disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16.24) He that does not take up his cross, and
follow me, is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10.38)
The way of the Cross that Christ walked is the way we as Orthodox
Christians must walk also. Christ took
up his Cross and we too must take up his Cross.
The
way of the Lord’s Cross is one of struggle and self denial. It means we are to be patient, kind,
longsuffering, forgiving, and charitable. As Christians we are to take the
example of the Apostle Paul and be “crucified with Christ” (Galatians
2.20). St. Paul teaches us, “God forbid
that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by where the
world is crucified to me, and I am to the world” (Galatians 6.14).
Now
here I would like to pose a Lenten question to us all. Are we taking up the ways of the world, or
the Cross of our Lord, God, and Saviour?
St. Paul tell us, “For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now
tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ; whose
end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame,
who mind earthly things. (Philemon 3.18-19)
These are intensely powerful words that need to be expanded upon. During Lent we see the ways and pace of the
world going its course, and the Church going another. St. Paul tells us that worldliness is the
enemy of the Cross. The world indulges
in passions and fleshly desires. If it
feels good do it is the motto the world lives by. Consequences matter only insofar as they
prohibit modern man from indulging in animalistic behavior. Man would get away with more if he could,
but, actions have consequences which hold him back. As Christians we are to always take a higher
ground in matters such as these, but especially during Lent. During Lent we abstain from conjugal
relations, frivolous entertainment, and flesh foods because it is to be a time
of taking up our Lord’s Cross with greater intensity. We do this because we are
friends of his Cross and not enemies of it like the world is. When we embrace Lent we embrace our Lord’s
Cross.
If
we look at the history of the Church we can see that it is built on the strong
foundation of ascetic struggles; of podvig. When one became a Christian in the
early Church there was a good chance he would suffer martyrdom. The Ecumenical Councils were brutal fights
for the sake of the Truth of Christ and many men had to stand their ground and
they couldn’t just agree to disagree like the modern world does because who
Jesus Christ was mattered. Men fled to
the desert to live in caves and pray without ceasing because many Christians
had become too worldly. All of these
acts are ascetical, they are podvigs, because they put Christ first and the
human will second. These martyrs,
theologians, and monks took up the way of the Lord’s Cross. It is the duty of every individual Christian,
and the Church at large, to exercise self restraint and profess this same
willingness to suffer for the Gospel today just as it has been suffered for
throughout the history of the Church.
Millions upon
millions of Orthodox Christians were martyred under the Soviet regime because
they were friends of our Lord’s Cross.
Many men and women have died to themselves in monasteries and found life
only for Christ versus living for another and Christ together in matrimony.
These Cross’ of martyrdom are profound, but it isn’t the only form of martyrdom
in the Church. Most of you here are married and remember your crowning when you
were wedded in the Church. Those crowns
were the manifestation of the martyrdom that marriage is. Love, if properly understood and acted upon,
is a Cross to bear. The happiest
marriages are those where each spouse puts the one they love first. The love between husband and wife is to be
sacrificial. Marriage is a royal road
upon which each member of the union must be willing to joyfully take upon
themselves the yoke of the Cross. When
we see happy marriages steeped in self sacrificial love, we see an icon of the
Holy Trinity. Trinitarian love is a
continual emptying out and reciprocation of the most perfect love shared
between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The unity of two into one in marriage, and the unity of Christ to the
Church, both reflect on the iconic nature of Christian matrimony. When many are united in one love and cause
the manifestation of the Holy Trinity’s love becomes a reality. To participate in this most perfect
Trinitarian love will be a Cross though.
As the old saying goes, “no pain…no gain.” Lent is a time of pain but it is also a time
of great gain because we all know what awaits us at the end.
As
Christians we must endure the way of our Lord’s Cross in whatever form it
manifests itself. We all should learn to
bear the sorrows and difficulties of our Lord’s Cross with joy. If we accept the yoke of our Lord’s Cross
which he places upon us then our lives will be lived on a Royal Pathway which
leads to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Lent can seem like
one giant prostration at times but if we do the will of Christ by taking up our
Lord’s Cross and bearing it, then we do our part in helping our Savior redeem
the world. Our Cross is Christ’s Cross
and when we suffer not only during Lent but all times of the year for our
bishop, priest, family, friends, neighbors, and most importantly our Lord, then
we are helping to save the world with Christ and through Christ because his
Cross is our Cross. We all should be
like St. Simon of Cyrene and take up the Cross for our Lord, because, he first
took up the Cross for us.
- Seminarian Joseph Gingrich
