SUNDAY OF THE CROSS
10 March 1991
----
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
One of the Fathers tells us that the memory of the Cross has been
placed halfway between the beginning of Lent and the week of the
Lord▓s Passion because when people start on a journey they are full of
life and of energy; when they see the end, again, energy and courage
flood into their hearts; but there is a moment half-way when
despondency comes, when the tiredness of the journey begins to tell
and when the end of it is not yet in sight. When we come to the Holy
Week, we will be confronted with the Crucifixion, the Cross as the
ultimate tragedy, the moment when the Lord God in an act of total
surrender, of a gift of Himself unreserved dies, dies for us and dies
our death with all the tragedy, the horror of it. But now the Cross is
presented to us as victory.
The Cross is not only the instrument of Christ▓s death; it▓s also the
instrument of Christ▓s victory and of our salvation. And it is with
hope that we can look at it and say, ▒Yes! If God has so trusted us,
if He believes in us to such an extent as to give His life for us,
then we can truly take up our own cross and follow Him, because this
cross is not a sign of defeat, this cross is the sign of victory.
But the first step on this way is given us by the Lord Who says,
▒Whoever wishes to follow Me...▓ ≈ and He does not force us to do so,
He leaves us free to turn away from Him, to let Him die for us while
we have no concern for it. But if we want to follow Him, the first
thing we must do is to renounce ourselves.
What does that actually mean? It means that we must turn away from our
continuous concern with us and look farther afield, see the whole
world in its tragedy, in its significance, in its meaning to God, and
also turn to God himself. We concentrate so continuously on what we
are, what we have, what we do not possess, what we need, what we long
for, what we are afraid of. Is that the way in which we can live: in
continuous hope for little things, in continuous fear, continuously
tormented by greed, and fear, and dislikes, and hatred? What is there
what we can regain, what we can make our own, which we can identify
with? Very little!
Saint Paul says: what is there that you possess which is yours? ≈
Nothing! Everything is given. Our existence is a gift of God, our life
is a gift of God, our knowledge of Him is a gift of God, our physical
well-being, our friendships, the beauty of the world ≈ all this is
given and we can do nothing either to possess it or to regain it if we
begin to lose it. We cannot retain the vision of the world when we
become blind, we cannot hear the harmony of the world if we go deaf...
Then why should we concentrate so continuously on our own selves as
though we were what we possess while we do not even possess what we
are!
Let us therefore have the courage to recognize the meaning of the
first Beatitude: Yes, I am poor, everything what I am, what I have,
what I treasure or what I fear is a gift of God for which I can be
grateful, it is an act of Divine love for which I can be so grateful!
And if it is so, then I have understood what it means to be in the
Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom of God is that relationship
between us and God which is love, between me and my neighbour which is
love. And the moment we have understood this, we are in the Kingdom
provided we have freed ourselves from our foolish imagination, foolish
idea that ⌠I am in my own right, I possess by my own power and
strength■.
Let us then, in weeks to come, get more and more free of this concern,
this centredness on what we imagine we have or we imagine we are; and
realize that all that is a gift of God and therefore it cannot be
lost. It is enough to be with Him to be possessed of all things; it is
enough to be with Him to be free of the things earthly and yet as rich
as God because God does not give only the little we long for or we
need; He gives His whole own self, His life, and all He possesses.
Let us therefore make a start. But then, what is the self which we
are, which is worth renouncing all the rest? Let us read the Gospel
with attention, and let us single out those things of which we can
say, ▒My heart is burning within me!▓ Those things which cast a ray of
light in our life, which give us courage and inspiration, which
cleanse and renew us ≈ because these things show us what we have in
common with God, the way in which we are already now the likes of God,
the way in which His image is already shining through the twilight of
our being. Isn▓t that a wonder! And if we concentrate on looking at
what is of God in us then we may let go of what is not of God, of that
very twilight or darkness to which we cling all the time imagining
that it is us. While the twilight exists only because there is light
in it, that light which the darkness cannot receive, but which dispels
all darkness and lead us step by step to the day when there will be
nothing but light, the light of God, the life of God.
Let us therefore concentrate in weeks to come towards this ascent,
towards that freedom which will allow us to enter into the Passion of
the Lord without a thought of ourselves, thinking only of Him, of the
Mother of God in the horror that pierces Her heart and the distress
and agony of the disciples. Amen.
----
* All texts are copyright: Estate of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh Library
http://www.mitras.ru/eng/
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий