In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Dear brothers and sisters!

We worship Your Cross, Lord, and glorify Your holy resurrection!

Here we are in the middle of Great Lent. Every person usually starts fasting very zealously. For the first two weeks, we fight hard against our passions, but as time passes, we become exhausted. The Church also knows something about such human weaknesses, that’s why on this Sunday she puts Jesus Christ, who was crucified on the cross, as an example for us.

 

On the third Sunday of Lent St. To strengthen our spirit, the Church tells us in a more special way to read St. Lord’s Cross Hence the name of this Sunday – Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross. We are invited to turn our attention not to our cross that we carry every day, but to the cross that our Lord bore, because His efforts were much more difficult.

 

The Holy Cross should remind us of God’s infinite love for us, Christ’s suffering for us and our duty to courageously bear our cross of daily life. Jesus Christ calls to all of us: “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me… He who does not carry his cross and does not follow me cannot be my disciple” ( Luke 9, 23 and 14, 27).

 

The Church reminds us that we have a strong weapon in the fight against the enemies for our salvation, and that weapon is the Holy Cross. And just this Sunday, the Cross appears before us as a sign of strength, a sign of salvation, and a sign of victory and triumph.

 

As Christians, we must imitate the Lord in everything. First of all, we must imitate Christ’s love, because it was love for man that motivated Him to carry the Cross. If we love God, shouldn’t we deny ourselves and do what He requires of us? We cannot hug God and say we love Him, but we can always show our love. How exactly should it be done? Apostle John tells us about this in his first epistle: “This is love for God: to keep His commandments. And His commandments are not grievous” (I John, 5, 3). Such words as law, commandments, rules, etiquette and others are reluctantly perceived by a person. Because a person understands that something is required of him. But is it difficult to do something and even a big one for the person you love!? Probably not. Because true love pushes a person to feats.

 

On the cross, the Savior of the world performed a great feat – the redemption and salvation of people. By His sufferings on the cross, He gave the cross a special saving power. The Lord Jesus Christ sprinkled, blessed and sanctified it with the righteous blood shed on the cross for the sins of the whole world.

 

The Savior showed us the way to the Kingdom of Heaven with the cross and commanded us to take up our cross and follow Him on the path of self-sacrificing love for God and our neighbors.

 

And the Cross of the Lord as an instrument of world salvation from the very beginning of the Church’s existence became for Christians a “sign of victory”, an object of special devout reverence and worship.

 

Let us bow down, brothers and sisters, to the Honest Life-Giving Cross of the Savior and turn to Him with fervent prayer, so that He, by His almighty grace, may direct us to the saving path of selfless service to Him and people. Amen!

(31)