April 10th, 2026: Great and Holy Friday Vespers

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. The long services this week

were not made so that our feet and legs would

hurt. I could go to the gym, get a personal trainer

to do that for me. Our presence at these services

It's not merely so that we can have an experience,

beautiful aesthetic experience, or an emotional

response, although that could be part of it,

and that's okay. But it has to be deeper. Otherwise,

we're just reminiscing. And that won't help us.

We stand and kneel before this fearsome, awesome

cross of suffering, and of life, a cross of hatred

and violence, a cross of God's humility and love,

both are united somehow. And we must somehow

figure out for ourselves that this is real. This

is the reality of our life. This is the most

real thing we might ever know. Because on this

day, there's no superficial religion. If it's

superficial and aesthetic, it won't help us.

For 40 days, the church has attempted during

Lent and Holy Week, if we were willing, the church

has attempted, if we were willing to let go of

some things, to help me see something. Am I prepared

for this moment today, now, tonight, tomorrow?

Am I prepared to see that the fashion of this

world is passing away and our life every day

is closer to our death? And is it a death that's

going to be a life -giving death, a death that

will be transformed before we die? Or is it going

to be... Just a miserable, terrible thing. Am

I prepared for that? And prepared how? Prepared

how? How do we prepare? And this is the judgment

that the light of Christ has come into the world.

And men love the darkness rather than the light.

Which is why there's a crucifixion. Because their

deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates

the light. and does not come to the light, lest

his deed should be exposed. But he who does what

is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly

seen. The 40 days and Holy Week is so that we

can be exposed to the light of God without shame.

All these days have been for us to know the power

of the cross of Christ, not to reminisce. And

all these days have been for us to see that it

is, A day with two sides, as I've already indicated.

A day of darkness and a day of triumph. A day

of hatred and a day of God's surpassing love.

Our Lord's death, the cross, is the ultimate,

the ultimate sign, the ultimate revelation of

man's hatred and the loving of the darkness.

But it's also the ultimate revelation of God's

compassion and love. And the cross is here in

this place before us to show us that Jesus, the

word of God, God's son, the one who is eternal

in his love, eternal in his forgiveness, eternal

in his goodness, the one who holds all things

in his hand, who became a man in all ways except...

for sin which is an illness which he came to

heal that it is he who suffered for on the cross

for all and died for all his death embrace embraces

all things meaning what meaning all the sufferings

of the world all the deaths everything is present

in the moment of the lord's crucifixion The utter

and complete emptiness of the grave, the forsakenness,

the threat of non -being, meaninglessness, the

absurdity of suffering and injured innocence,

crosses not a stranger to cruelty or any form

of mockery and perverted delight. Everything

is here and on the cross because Christ is eternal.

And the power of it is eternal, not just then,

but always. So in him, on this cross today, the

power of that transforming glory of God to change

what is absurd and foolish into what is glorious.

It's all here. It's also the fullness of paradise,

this cross. The complete joy of existence. The

ecstasy, as somebody wrote, of transcendent love.

Everything is there. Light shines in the darkness

of the grave and death. Life is promised to all.

Eternal, boundless life. We come before this

cross and we kneel to receive that. The cross

is God's single point of ingathering. All things

are gathered together into one in Christ Jesus.

Wrote St. Paul. Unbelief too. Unbelief too. Lack

of belief too. It's also there. Because it's

a sin of the wounded heart. A disease of perception.

A disease of lack of vision. Healed by the presence

of the cross. Throughout the whole passion of

Christ. It is he who triumphs. Evil. can do nothing

against him writes father alexander schmemann

for it cannot make christ who is truth except

evil as truth we read in the gospel today how

at the cross there was only the lord's mother

and his beloved disciple john and other women

all the other people there were mocking making

fun of Jesus, and the disciples scattered in

fear. But since the resurrection, there have

been countless millions of believers over the

centuries, knowing the power of the cross and

the resurrection, who are not afraid to stand

at the cross and to pick it up and to carry it

and to proclaim it. Because they know that they

will have the gift of the body being raised in

glory like Christ. Beyond glorious. They did

not scatter when they were faced with persecution

or hatred or torture. I'm not speaking of the

great saints that we see on the walls. I'm speaking

of ordinary parish members. Christians. They

knew that the message of the cross is foolishness

to those who are perishing. We heard today. But

to us? who are being saved, it is the power of

God. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom

of God. Because Christ endures everything we

heard today. That horrible treatment, the spitting,

the brutality. He endured everything in order

to bring each of us. He came not to save all

in a general sense, but each person in a particular

sense. To make us what we are intended to be.

So we will stop fighting what God has planned

for us. What he has made us to be. He wants us

to be absolutely free. Little Christs. Called

to be gods. With a lower G. And our God is so

humble that this is the way he has chosen it.

And there was no other way. Except this brutality

of blood and suffering. and the shame of the

cross, because the foolishness of God is wiser

than men, and the weakness of God is stronger

than men. Therefore, brothers, sisters, Reverend

Father, the Reverend Fathers, let us unite our

cross, our sorrows, our wounds, our fears, disappointments,

ignorance, anxieties, illnesses, betrayals, And

especially our life and death as our life begins

to pass away. Let us unite our cross with his

cross and then expect healing and miracles within.

May I suggest that after these services today,

as we wait for the matins at 6 p .m., we try

to remain silent. We don't go outside and start.

conversations. Yes, we should be joyful, but

we're thinking about this right now. The sorrow

and the devastating loss that the apostles felt

at that moment when we thought it would be he

that would redeem Israel is killed from our standpoint

where we know that he was raised. and what he

has done for us. How could something like this,

so many thousands of years, still be so powerful

unless it is absolutely real? Knowing all that,

we should be even more horrified than they were

at what our Lord endured. And then we keep silence

and meditate on this great sacrifice that we

have. Don't lose the grace of the services, but

keep Christ before your spiritual eyes, in the

tomb with the body, in Hades with his soul, though

he is God, in paradise with the thief, and on

the throne with the Father and the Spirit, O

Christ, boundless Christ, filling all things.

Amen.