Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross - Fr. Lawrence Margitich

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

of the Holy Spirit, I greet you, brothers and

sisters, on this day of the resurrection and

the continuation of the celebration of the Feast

of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross. That's

why we're singing all these hymns today. Normally,

the leave -taking of the cross would be tomorrow.

but we're doing it today because you're all gathered.

We're all together. The elder and saint Perferius,

the recent saint, said to somebody once, the

great medicine is for us to devote ourselves

to the worship of Christ. Everything is healed.

Everything functions normally. The love of God

transforms everything. It sanctifies, it amends,

and changes the nature of everything. This is

the cross. This is the medicine of the cross.

Last year, I had the great blessing in October

to go to the Holy Mountain, Mount Athos, and

I went to the monastery of Vatopedi, and I stayed

there. And I had the great blessing to serve

Divine Liturgy twice with the other fathers in

this magnificent, beautiful church where St.

Gregory Palamas was at one time and many other

saints. And at the great entrance, you know,

we usually come out with the chalice and the

discos. And the deacon does that, and the main

priest holds the chalice. And all the other priests

in our practice, we come out with a spoon and

a spear and a cross or whatever is left over

that we're going to need. But there at Vatupedi,

each priest that is serving at the great entrance

is given one of the relics, one of the reliquaries.

And the second liturgy that I served at, I was

given this box about this big. About 30 pounds.

And it was covered with jewels and gold. And

it opens up. And what is it? But a large piece

of the true cross, which had been in that monastery

for a long time and had worked so many miracles

and healings for people. And my reaction was

I was completely... dumbfounded for a moment.

I couldn't remember what I was supposed to even

do next. And I carry this holy relic out. We

go out, all the priests go out, commemorations,

and we go back in. And I realized, I don't know

anything about the cross. To me, I would hear

that verse that we just heard. In the Gospel

of Mark, pick up your cross, follow me. And I

thought, well, what are those crosses? Dramatic,

difficult things, usually caring for somebody

else, or a problem in your life, you know. This

is my cross, Father, have to carry it. But I

realized that day, after I gave this precious

relic back, to the sacristan and he put it away.

I never heard the first part of that verse which

tells you what it means to pick up the cross.

The Lord says an invitation. It's an invitation

that our precious, loving, merciful creator offers

to each person. He says, if you want to follow

me, deny yourself. That's the basic first step

of a Christian. Deny yourself. I'm not making

that up, and I don't like it any more than you.

There's plenty of things I don't want to deny

about myself, especially myself. But if I'm concerned

about myself, then how am I concerned about the

will of God? If I'm concerned about my own will,

how can I ever do God's will? How can I ever

do the will of somebody else, much less my wife,

who might say, please take out the trash, but

I don't want to. Deny yourself. This is the first

step of the Christian life. And I only saw...

this precious relic until I gave it away as that

cross that we all have to carry, the difficult

thing in our life, rather than the life preserver

that our Lord himself throws to us. You know,

if you're sinking in the water off the side of

a ship, they're not going to throw you a brick

or the anchor. They're going to throw you something

that floats. The cross isn't going to drown us.

No. In fact, our own will, if you seek your own

life, you will lose it. If we seek to lose our

life, that is, to give it to Christ, then that

cross won't drown us, but we'll hang on to it

for dear life, and it will pull us up. It will

pull us up. Father Nicholas quoted Tito Coleander

last night at Vespers. I'll do him one better.

I'll also quote Tito Coleander. He says, as long

as our selfish desires rule. And none of us thinks

we're selfish. Most of us think we're quite magnanimous.

We're generous. We're good. But the gauge, the

criterion, the bar is Jesus Christ. who made

himself of no reputation, but became a servant

to slave, even to death on the cross. As long

as our selfish will rules, he says as long as

your selfish will rules, but I'm including myself,

you cannot pray to the Lord with a pure heart,

thy will be done. If you cannot get rid of your

own greatness, neither can you lay yourself open

for real greatness. If you cling to your own

freedom, you cannot share in true freedom, where

only one will remains. It is the life of our

will that is destroyed. Since the fall in the

Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, our will has

been running errands exclusively for its own

ego. For this reason, our warfare is directed

against the life of self -will as such. And it

should be undertaken without delay or wearying.

How? How to do that? Oh, so simple. If you have

the urge to talk, don't. If you have the urge

to drink two cups of coffee, drink only one.

If you have the urge to look at the clock, don't

look. If you wish to smoke a cigarette, refrain,

especially refrain. If you want to go visiting,

stay at home. This is self -persecution. And

with God's help, our will is quieted. The Holy

Fathers say this, Do you really think that you

can fill a jar with clean water, that's our soul,

before the old dirty water has been emptied out?

Let us purify the heart. And if we move out of

ourself towards Christ, who do we see? We see

Christ, and we see our neighbor. It is for this

reason that denying oneself is a stipulation

and the chief one for the person who seeks salvation

in Christ. Only so that the center of our being,

our attention, our understanding, who we are,

who we think we are, can be moved from self to

Christ. Both God and neighbor. And then we hear

Jesus say, Pick up the cross. His listeners didn't

think it was some kind of problem in their life

that their cross consisted of. They knew what

Golgotha looked like when the Roman contingent

went up there to crucify people. When Jesus says

pick up your cross, he's being as graphic as

he can about putting that which is opposed to

God to death. Why? Well, you heard from Tito

Coleander, but there's one more thing that I'd

like to share with you. It's so that we can then

be bearers of the light. The Christian faith

is not about keeping a bunch of rules and doing

good things. It's about bearing the light of

Christ. For it is God who commanded the light

to shine out of darkness. When it says in the

beginning, let there be light, the same has shined

in our hearts. Is it shining? Let it shine to

give the light of the knowledge of the glory

of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have

this treasure in clay vessels. That the excellence

of the power may be of God, not of us. We're

troubled on every side. We're not distressed.

We're perplexed. We're not in despair. We're

persecuted, but we're not forsaken. We're cast

down, but we're not destroyed. We always bear

in our body The dying of the Lord Jesus. This

is the cross. So that the life of Jesus may be

made manifest in our body. All things are possible

with Christ. Where is the pain and effort for

you to become good? Elder Porphyria says, it's

simple. You will call upon God. And he will take

things from you. And make them good. If you give

your heart to them, he says, there's no room

for the other things. When you put on Christ

in baptism, then you put on the resurrection,

the garment of light, and you become a bearer

of Christ. And you will not need any effort,

he says, this is surprising, to attain the godly

virtues. They will be given to you. Are you engulfed

in fear? Are you disenchanted? Turn to Christ.

Love him simply and humbly, without any demand,

and he himself will free you. Turn to Christ,

and with humility and with hope. Like St. Paul

says, Who shall deliver me from this body of

death? Turn to Christ, and he will come immediately.

His grace will act at once. Amen.