St. Philaret the New Confessor: On the Three-Fold Composition of the Life-Giving Cross and Our Earthly Cross

 

On the day when the Church glorifies the Life-Giving Cross, it is not superfluous for us, brothers and sisters, to remember how the Church, how the holy fathers and instructors in piety teach us to see the Life-giving and the carrying of one’s cross.

The great instructor in faith and piety among our nation, the holy hierarch Theophan the Re­cluse, used to say that the Cross of Christ is three-fold in composition; the cross which a Christian must bear in his life is three-fold in composition, just as the very wood of the Cross, according to the prophet’s prediction was comprised of the wood of three types of trees. Likewise in the mat­ter of the bearing of one’s cross we see three sides, as if three crosses which merge into one, as the holy hierarch Theophan said.

The first of these crosses is the cross of fallen mankind. The holy apostle Paul spoke of it briefly, precisely and powerfully, saying concerning him­self, “I don’t know what I do; the good which I wish to do I do not; the evil which I do not want, I do,” I become a prisoner of my sin — this is the cross of fallen man which no one can escape, of which again the holy hierarch Theophan had said, “Imagine a person who has a decomposing, stinking body tied tightly behind his shoulders; no matter where he runs or tries to wriggle out, he cannot unload this terrible stench of decom­position. It will invariably follow him, constantly pursue him.”

The second cross is that which people com­monly understand to be the earthly cross of life: this is the combination of all sorrows, all troubles, all difficulties of which our life is so rich. This is what people understand as the bearing of one’s cross — and this is right, but this is not all there is to it. One must remember as the holy fathers say: a person who is surrounded by sorrows, illnesses, troubles, but yet as soon as he turns himself over to God with all his heart with all his soul, saying, the Lord does everything to good and therefore no matter what He sends me on my life’s path, I believe that this is toward good, as soon as he says this in his heart (said the holy hierarch Theophan), ev­erything will change as if by the wave of a wand. Around him everything seems the same — all the same sorrows, the same difficulties, but he has changed and receives all of this in a completely dif­ferent way. This is how a cross-bearer must be, with firm conviction that the Heavenly Father will not give a stone instead of bread and if he sends some kind of a cross, difficulties and sorrows, that means these are beneficial for us.

I have already quoted many times the remark­able words of the elder Amvrossy of Optina who said, “What will be will be, but what will be is what God grants, and God does everything to­ward good.”

The third form of the cross. The holy hier­arch Theophan spoke about it humbly, with his characteristic profound humility. He said, “That cross is known only to those who are already on a high spiritual level, who have already overcome all temptations, who easily overcomes all tribulations. But the highest temptations — the temptations of pride, the temptation to elevate oneself over others, the temptation of thinking oneself better and higher than others because of one’s labors and feats — this cross is the heaviest, said the holy hi­erarch Theophan, and it is known only by those who have been perfected in all other things.

So we must then remember that a Christian must be a cross-bearer. As we had talked of this yesterday, the human life begins under the cross: he is baptized and a cross is put around his neck at the very moment when he enters the Church through the mystery of baptism. When he is bur­ied into the earth from whence he came, over the grave a cross is placed signifying the bearing of the cross by this faithful Christian of the Church.

Let us remember this, beloved, and let us remember about the power of the cross which strengthens a man and saves him in earthly dif­ficulties. Don’t forget, Christian soul, about this power and may the Lord, through the power of His cross, preserve you from every onslaught. Amen.

 

Source: Living Orthodoxy, Vol. XXXV, No. 1; Jan-Feb 2015, #205, pp. 24-25.