Homily for the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross- Father Gavril Galev
~+~
In the Sunday following the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the main theme is again about the cross and its spiritual significance.
Because of sin, suffering and death came into the world, which became a general problem for mankind. Both suffering and death cannot be resolved in any way other than through suffering and death, therefore the God-Man Jesus Christ suffered on the cross and experienced death.
Sin occurs because of our renunciation of God, turning towards ourselves, that is, to the material things, to the pleasures of this world, to passions and sinful life. And again, our return to God must be in the same way, turning away from sin, from this world and its pleasures, and accepting Christ again.
This acceptance of Christ cannot be reached in any way other than by carrying our own cross as Christ carried His cross, which is not actually His, because He did nothing bad on earth. He knew not of sin, but He bore His cross for us. To redeem us from sin, from satan and from death. Because He had no sin, hades and death could not contain Him. Christ died and rose again and opened the way for us, for us sinners, to be delivered from sin, suffering and death.
And if we live in that way, that is, if we synchronize our life according to Christ’s life, by living a Christocentric life, where Christ is the centre of our existence, then every suffering that comes to us, every trouble, every temptation (trial) will have meaning and we will accept it as a gift from God for our salvation.
The soul is of more worth than the whole world. One person’s single soul, be it mine, yours, theirs, is more precious than all the wealth of the whole world. That is why we should be more concerned about our soul rather than anything of this world. Because, even if we gain the whole world, yet, if we sin against our soul, it is worth nothing. For this reason, we should arrange everything in our life so as to cleanse our soul, that is, our heart and to shape our life according to Christ’s life.
This shaping (becoming likeness of Christ) is achieved by obedience to the Spiritual Father and the Church. Through the fulfilment of God’s commandments and the tradition of the Church, living a sacramental, ascetic-hesychastic life in fasting, prayer, confession, communion, etc. In this manner, we will gain the Kingdom of Heaven here and now, and these are they who will not taste death until the kingdom of God comes, about which Christ speaks of in the Gospel.
The Kingdom of God is not somewhere, but here among us, that is, to be more precise, within us, in our heart. We just have to open the door of our heart so that the Kingdom of Heaven can come into our hearts. That is why it is said during the Liturgy: “Let us lift up our hearts”, and we answer: “We lift them up unto the Lord”. Now the question arises as to how truly our hearts are before God, and whether we are lying to Christ by being preoccupied with the earthly things.
It is unfortunate, yet true, that we waste our life away, wasting our energy and our time on unnecessary things, and on things that are harmful to us. That is why the Lord says, at this point, that we should renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him, to die unto ourselves. That is, dying unto ourselves, which is to say, the dying of the sinful man, who has taken up residence in us and who has become our second nature, i.e. unnatural nature.
We are created similar to Christ and we are the ones who need to advance in our spiritual life so that our resemblance to Him is even greater, that is why Christ came to earth. And as Saint Paul the Apostle said that he no longer lives for himself, but lives for Christ. And, this is that which we should strive for in this life. And that is why the Lord says that we should renounce ourselves, that is, we should empty ourselves of all our evil within us, of all our sin, of all our partiality, of every sinful passion, of all association with sin, with the world and everything that is destructive to our soul.
And only in this way can Christ enter our heart, because Christ, the Holy One, dwells only in holiness, in bright and clean rooms. Therefore, let us strive to cleanse our heart of passions so that we can receive Christ and thus save our soul, so that we can acquire the Kingdom of Heaven now, here and in all ages. Amen.
Father Gavril Galev
Abbot of the Monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
29 / 09 / 2024
