WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO TAKE UP YOUR CROSS?

already the church has reached the great feast of the elevation of the cross the the second of the twelve great festivals in the orthodox calendar the exaltation of the cross elevation of the cross and this feast calls us to reflect on the cross itself saint gregory palamas says to us the cross is the abolition of sin our sin the abolition of sin and saint gregory says there are a number of great mysteries about the cross first of all he says the cross represents to us flight from the world flight from the world death to the flesh and second he says the mystery of the cross means being crucified to the world and in this the church fathers talk about purification purification of the inner self purification from the passions this is one of the great mysteries of the cross of course christ says to all of us all who would try to be obedient to christ and become his disciples he says to us you must take up your cross to follow me so we must ask ourselves what does it really mean to take up our cross how can we know that we are doing this well being a christian means to deny ourselves we are not all called to lay down our lives physically to give up our lives to martyrdom and yet we are still called to carry our cross and it is this denial of self denial of the flesh denial of the will even denial of opinion we can form so many opinions that we must make obedient to the teachings of the church the traditions of the church so being a christian means to deny ourself putting to death every worldly and carnal passion that we see within ourselves crucify the flesh so that we put to death and reject every desire for for what the world gives for worldly glory for money for worldly honor for a life of pleasure everything the world would say we should chase after we he even in our schools we hear teachers telling children that they must go out and get a job to earn lots of money that will make their life comfortable and pleasurable our children are being taught to lay down their cross to walk away it is the opposite of christianity how deeply in debt we all are to god we owe him so much a debt that we can never pay christ has given us everything life itself even himself but we cannot pay back this debt even with our very lives there is nothing that we have and nothing that we are that can ever meet this great debt of love that god has given what little god truly asks of us god says to us be obedient follow my commands love forgive repent of your sins he asks so little of us in the face of this great death that we owe him he says put the old man of sin the old man of the world to death deny yourselves and take up your cross he asks so little of us in return for so much in return for everything so we must ask ourselves how do we achieve this how do we achieve carrying our cross taking up our cross well christ again in his teachings makes it all so simple for us he says we must flee temptation we must reduce the fuel of the passions we mustn't feed this great fire of the passions within us reduce the fuel don't go chasing after expensive clothes the finest and most expensive foods comfortable homes big cars etc etc we must become humble become humble call on god for forgiveness we must bring to mind our sins before god and repent this is denying ourselves putting the old man to death we mustn't try to or imagine ourselves more superior to anybody else humble ourselves before others do not try to think of ourselves as above or superior to anybody and don't don't trust in our own judgment don't allow impulses and ideas however strongly we feel them to control us we are to recognize the calling of god and his teaching in the church the holy spirit is at work in the church the traditions of the church are given to us by god we must lay down these opinions let tradition trample trample over our personal opinion we must conceal any virtuous act we perform conceal it from others let god alone see it let's do everything in secret must reject everything that is of the world and embrace all worldly dishonor embrace poverty struggle if it is accepted for christ all of these things if we take on struggle if we take on dishonor for christ's name then it is crucifixion and it will lead to the kingdom of god all this gives birth to the eternal riches of the kingdom of god this all sounds ridiculous to the world it is the opposite of the world's teaching the wisdom of god is virtue and weakness virtue and weakness the fathers like saint gregory palamas say the cross is the trophy of god imagine the world seeing the cross the sign of death of suffering and yet the father says this is the trophy of god a divine trophy christ himself said he would be lifted up on the cloth to glory raised to glory there on the cross his victory over sin over death his triumph shares this divine trophy with us it is a gift of love a gift of freedom for humanity but god grants this trophy this gift to those who are obedient who seek him often the world will ask why would good things bad things happen to good people why would god let his saints suffer so much god will give this trophy this divine trophy the cross to those who are closest to him christianity is a difficult calling a difficult calling it means embracing this divine trophy accepting crucifixion the divine trophy within god gives this trophy only to those who are to near to him if we draw near to him we must be obedient and carry it and it will not be the cross we choose when we suffer in this world it is a blessing a blessing it leads to the reward in the kingdoms to come suffering is a blessing but it becomes a blessing only when we trust god when we are obedient to god if we lack trust in god then suffering becomes meaningless and empty and frightening and we see great fear in the world around us at the moment because there is not trust in god as orthodox christians we are baptized into christ's death baptized into his death his crucifixion that we may be raised to his glory so let us never accept the world's understanding of victory our victory our salvation is found in crucifixion it must live in a way that rejects this calling we must live in a way that honors honours this high calling that god gives to us live with dignity live with with self-control and live with love and forgiveness the cross the cross puts the devil to shame every time we make the sign of the cross over ourselves we we should remember that it it burns the demons when we make the sign of the cross with intent it burns the demons so let us cross ourselves yes asking for god's blessing and remember that we put the old man of sin within us to death let us remember this when we make the sign of the cross and we remember that we are also accepting god's call to a life of humility and obedience when we make this sign of the cross we commit ourselves again to god's way to his call to carry our own cross there is an old russian story a fable that reminds us it says when a king goes into battle he takes with him only men who are willing to die for him if they're not willing to die for him in the battle what good are they to his king to this king and yet when we look at our heavenly king men may die on the battlefield and they lose everything perhaps honor in memory we are involved in a spiritual war a spiritual battle our king calls us to follow him into battle and to be willing to lay down our lives but not purely for worldly honor to lay down our lives that we may inherit eternal life the eternal kingdom of god and we must every one of us reflect think about what it means to carry the cross to be crucified to put the old man to death let us examine our lives do i seek after the things of this world money status or do i seek after the things of god and do i resist resist with all my will those impulses those temptations that are stirred within me let's turn away from all that would trigger and set fire to these passions for these passions are death and the cross is life this is something of a ps at the end of the video we live in a world where the media is lying to us where people quite rightly reject so much that they're being shown in images and being told on television on the radio we must we must evaluate must adopt a critical thinking to everything that the media is telling us however we can allow this this right and correct assessment of what we're being taught and shown we can allow this to turn into a kind of paranoia we have to be very careful we'll stick to the royal path the royal path that protects us from going either to the left or right and so there are some people who constantly contacted me recently and said um they think the sound of the sheep has been somehow added to the video or that this is a green screen um and so i add this ps really just to assure and encourage those who feel anxious or paranoid about this these woods are real these sheep are real and so what i'm going to do is turn the video right now just to show you to help you to feel confident that uh you're not being duped that this really is where i'm standing through the prayers of our holy fathers lord jesus christ our god have mercy on us let's touch one of these trees and go for a walk so as you can see it's solid yeah i'm at the edge of the woods here you may recognize this if you've seen some of the other videos so i'm at the edge of the woods and we'll go out to the gate and you can see the sheep and the fields i'll try to be quick so this was filmed a number of my videos [Applause] there are the sheep they're the ones making all the noise it's a beautiful place i'm back into the woods i hope that helps up that punch a few minds at peace god bless you

Channel: Father Spyridon

Views: 26,861

Rating: 4.9665155 out of 5

Keywords: The cross, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodoxy, Elevation of the cross

Id: C8cDB-GM_AQ

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021