Homily on the Third Appearance of the Precious Cross

By Metropolitan Gerontios of Piraeus and Salamina [1]

Delivered (in Greek) on September 14, 2018 (Old Style), at the Holy Church of the Theotokos of Prousa, Athens, Greece, named for the Mother of God Prousiotissa, an Icon of the Virgin Mary painted, according to tradition, by St. Luke the Evangelist.

Your Grace, Bishop Clement of Gardikion,

Honorable Presbyters, Venerable Deacons,

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This is a special day for our Martyric Church. Ninety-three years have passed since the blessed day of the miraculous occurrence of the third Appearance of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross at the Holy Monastery of St. John the Theologian at Hymettos. [2] It was an affirmation from on high of the confession of Faith of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece.

It was an event that has come to be a confirmatory seal on the just struggle of all those who resisted the Church calendar reform in 1924; of those who remained faithful to the Sacred Canons of the Holy Fathers, preserving unchanged their Orthodox mindset.

It was a seal for those Christians who did not hesitate to preserve their faith steadfastly, even though they were aware that their opposition to the innovative views of the State Church would bring them face to face with ferocious persecutions.

From 1924, and for many decades thereafter, the comfort and ease that we enjoy today were not to be had. In those days, it was not possible for the genuine Christians to express themselves freely, as we do today. Yesterday’s Christians were under persecution. They sought out ways in which they could fulfill their religious duties, attending church in small Chapels in the mountains and in isolated areas, always in fear and in utter secrecy. The Priests lived in hiding, moving about in the night, so as to avoid arrest.

It was thus that, in September of 1925, a group of faithful people of various ages climbed up into the foothills of Mount Hymettos to the Chapel of St. John, so that they could pray and show honor to the Feast of the Elevation of the Precious Cross.

Simple folk from all of the Attica Basin, they sought refuge in the wilderness, so that they might thank God and commune from the Spotless Mysteries and receive sanctification.

Presiding at the Liturgy was the indefatigable struggler, Father John Phloros. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who always protects us and never forsakes us, constantly shows us signs for the fortification of our Faith.

Therefore, one year after the calendar betrayal, on the day of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, September 14, 1925, [3] there was made manifest the wondrous occurrence of the third appearance of the Precious Cross, to give strength to the anguished genuine Orthodox. Reflecting back on ecclesiastical history, the first appearance of the Precious Cross was before St. Constantine the Great, in the form of a symbol of victory—“In this sign conquer”—on the evening of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge against the contender for the Roman Throne, Maxentius.

The second appearance of the Holy Cross was on May 7, 346, in Jerusalem, when Constantios II reigned in Constantinople and the Patriarch of Jerusalem was St. Cyril. The Cross on which Christ was martyred shone forth that day, formed by a supernatural light and extending to the Mount of Olives.

And the third appearance of the Holy Cross was as noted above, on September 14, 1925, at the All-Night Vigil of those Christians who, defying the danger posed, hastened to honor the great Feast of the Elevation of the Precious Cross at Hymettos, to become beholders and eyewitnesses of the Divine Presence.

And this great manifestation of truth could not be hidden. The event was made known, and the newspapers of that time wrote about it.

It is nearing a century since this wondrous event occurred, when God sealed and strengthened the Faith of all of these people, who in the most adverse conditions sought to keep it alive.

In today’s epoch, however, contemporary faithful have changed their hierarchy of needs.

People in our day have placed the priorities of daily life above all else, seeking, struggling for, and worrying solely about subsistence. They leave their faith in dormancy and bit by bit forget about God.

Yet in these days, when ecumenism, religious syncretism, and other ills of the New Age are at their peak, our mission is even more essential. We do not have the luxury of wasting our time on inessential skirmishes.

It is now that the “little yeast” must be made effective. It is now that the world needs the truth more than ever before. We must first correct our own faults, and with boldness, and ask of the world that it call to mind the words of the Apostle of the Nations, who tells us: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

To put it simply, we are free because Christ has made us free. We must stand firm and not be bound again by the bond of servitude.

Allow me to close with a few words of St. Gregory Palamas, from his discourse on the Precious and Life-Giving Cross:

“Let us, bending our knees and inclining our hearts, together with the Psalmist and Prophet David, reverence the place where His feet were fixed (Psalm 131:7), where He spread out His Hands, which held together the universe, and where He, for our sakes, stretched forth His Body, the source of life, and, venerating and kissing it [the Cross] with faith, draw on its abundant sanctification and cherish it. And thereby, at the most glorious and future Second Coming of our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ, beholding Him come in splendor, we will rejoice at having attained to a place at His right, in the glory of the Son of God, crucified in the flesh for our salvation, to Whom is due glory, together with his Unoriginate Father and his all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.”

 

1. Metropolitan Gerontios, born in Piraeus in 1966, hails from a family with deep roots in the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece. He is a graduate of the Rizareios Ecclesiastical School of Athens and the Ecclesiastical Lyceum of Athens. He became a monk immediately after his studies and was raised to the rank of Bishop in 1999.

2. A suburb of Athens.

3. The date of the Feast in the traditional Church Calendar, which is thirteen days behind the secular (Gregorian) calendar.

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1, pp. 19-22.