The beginning of the ecclesiastical year is marked by the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God and the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross. The two Sundays bracketing this latter feast are also dedicated to the Holy Cross. As such, the month of September is marked by the observance of the Holy Cross.

The Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross was established in order to commemorate and honor an event in the history of salvation related to the honorable Cross of Christ our Savior. This was the miraculous discovery of the Holy Cross of our Lord by Empress Helen, and its being lifted up in the sight of the faithful at the Church of the Holy Resurrection in Jerusalem by Patriarch Macarius. Part of the wood of the Holy Cross was taken to Constantinople for veneration, the rest remaining in Jerusalem until the year 614, when the Persians conquered Palestine and entered into possession of the wood of the Holy Cross. In 628, Emperor Heraclius brought back the Holy Cross, first to Constantinople, then to Jerusalem, placing it in the aforementioned church.

From the historical event we move to the significance of the Holy Cross in the life of the Christian believer. Christ Himself exhorted us to take up the Cross: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the Gospel will save it” (Mark 8:34-35). What does it mean for us to lose our soul for Christ and the Gospel? I believe Saint Paul gives us the answer when he says that Christ, “…being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…” (Philippians 2:6-7). To lay down our soul for Christ and for the Gospel means to follow Christ and to not consider that our life is something that has value in itself without God. Our being is light when it is in the true light, in the light of God. Our existence has value when the love of God shines through it. However, this light and this value cannot be gained through our own merit, but by dedicating ourselves to God, putting our efforts and our qualities in the service of the proclamation of the truth of God: the Incarnation of the Son, that is revealed in the Gospel.

The mystery of the Christian life is found in the choice between two tendencies: either regarding our soul as our own or giving it up to God in order that we may receive it back beautified. The Christian martyrs gave up their souls and their lives; they certainly received them back in heaven.

At the beginning of the liturgical year, the Church has established this prolonged celebration of the historical event of the Elevation of the Holy Cross in order to offer us the chance to reflect on our own understanding of the world and of our Christian life. There are two questions with which we ought to journey through this ecclesiastical year: Why was the Son of God lifted up on the Cross, and what does that mean for me? Our own spiritual growth in this year that we are beginning depends on our answers to these questions. May God grant to each of us the right answers, in order that we may increase in faith, hope, and love.

† Metropolitan Nicolae