Homily on the Third Sunday of Great Lent.
On Carrying Your Cross
Whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross, and follow me (Mk. 8:34)
Dear brothers and sisters! We too are disciples of our
Lord Jesus Christ, because we are Christians. We too are
called unto the Lord, to this holy temple, to hear His
teaching. We stand before the face of the Lord. His gaze
is directed at us. Our souls are laid bare before Him; our
secret thoughts and hidden feelings are open to Him. He
sees all of our intentions; He sees the truth, and the
sins we have committed from our youth; He sees our whole
life, past and future; even what we have not yet
done is already written in His book.[1] He knows the hour of our
passing into immeasurable eternity, and gives us His
all-holy commandment for our salvation: Whosoever
will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross, and follow me.
Through living faith, let us lift up the eyes of our mind
to the Lord Who is present here with us! Let us open our
hearts, rolling back the heavy stone of hardness from its
entrance; let us hear, ponder, accept, and assimilate the
teaching of our Lord.
What does it mean to deny ourselves? It means
leaving our sinful life. Sin, through which our fall
occurred, has so encompassed our nature that it has become
as if natural; thus, denial of sin has become denial of
nature, and denying nature is denying ourselves. The
eternal death that has struck our souls has become like
life for us. It demands food: sin; it demands to be
pleased—with sin. By means of such food and
pleasure, eternal death upholds and preserves its dominion
over man. But fallen man accepts the growth of the
dominion of death in himself as growth and success in
life. Thus, he who is infected with a fatal disease is
overcome by the forceful demands of this disease and looks
for foods that would strengthen him. He seeks them as the
most essential foods, as the most needed and pleasant
delights. The Lord pronounced His sentence against this
eternal death, which mankind, sick with terrible
fallenness, imagines to be life: For whosoever will
save his life, cultivating in it the life of
fallenness or eternal death, shall lose it; but
whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the
gospel’s, the same shall save it (Mk. 8:35).
Placing before our eyes the whole world with all its
beauty and charm, the Lord says, For what shall it
profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose
his own soul? What good is it for man, what has he
really acquired if he should come to possess not only some
minor thing, but even the entire visible world? This
visible world is no more than man’s temporary
guesthouse! There is no item on the earth, not a single
acquirable good that we could call our own. Everything
will be taken from us by merciless and inevitable death;
and unforeseen circumstances and changes often take them
away even before our death. Even our own bodies are cast
aside at that sacred step into eternity. Our possession
and treasure is our soul, and our soul alone. What
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mk. 8:37),
sayeth the word of God. There is nothing that can
recompense the loss of the soul when it is killed by
eternal death, which deceitfully calls itself life.
What does it mean to take up our cross? The cross was an
instrument of shameful execution of commoners and captives
deprived of a citizen’s rights. The proud world, a
world at enmity with Christ, deprives Christ’s
disciples of the rights enjoyed by the sons of this world.
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own:
but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you
out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God
service. And these things will they do unto you, because
they have not known the Father, nor me (Jn. 15:19;
16:2–3). Taking up our cross means magnanimously
enduring the mocking and derision that the world pours out
upon followers of Christ—those sorrows and
persecutions with which the sin-loving and blind world
persecutes those who follow Christ. For this is
thankworthy, says the Apostle Peter, if a man for
conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
For even hereunto were ye called (1 Pet. 2:19, 21). We
were called by the Lord, Who said to his beloved ones,
In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world (Jn. 16:33).
Taking up our cross means courageously enduring difficult
unseen labor, agony, and torment for the sake of the
Gospels as we war with our own passions, with the sin that
lives in us, with the spirits of evil who vehemently make
war against us and franticly attack us when we resolve to
cast off the yoke of sin, and submit ourselves to the yoke
of Christ. For we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, says the holy Apostle Paul, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in
high places (Eph. 6:12). (For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations,
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor.
10:4–5). After gaining victory in this unseen but
laborious warfare, the Apostle exclaimed, But God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and
I unto the world (Gal. 6:14).
Taking up our cross means obediently and humbly submitting
ourselves to those temporary sorrows and afflictions that
Divine Providence sees fit to allow against us for the
cleansing away of our sins. Then the cross will serve us
as a ladder from earth to heaven. The thief in the Gospels
who ascended this ladder ascended from out of terrible
crimes into most radiant heavenly habitations. From his
cross he pronounced words filled with humility of wisdom;
in humility of wisdom he entered into the knowledge of
God, and through the knowledge of God, he acquired heaven.
We receive the due reward of our deeds, he said.
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom
(Lk. 23:41–42). When sorrows encompass us, let us
also, beloved brothers and sisters, repeat the words of
the good thief—words that can purchase paradise! Or
like Job, let us bless the Lord who punishes us, Who is
just yet merciful. Shall we receive good at the hand of
God, said this sufferer, and shall we not receive
evil? As it hath pleased the Lord so is it done; blessed
be the name of the Lord (Job 2:10; 1:21). May
God’s promise, which is true, be fulfilled in us:
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when
he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the
Lord hath promised to them that love him. (Js. 1:12).
Taking up our cross means willingly and eagerly submitting
ourselves to deprivations and ascetic labors, by which the
irrational strivings of our flesh are held in check. The
Apostle Paul had recourse to such a crucifixion of his
flesh. He says, But I keep under [in Slavonic:
“deaden,” or “mortify”] my
body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any
means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be
a castaway (1 Cor. 9:27). They that are in the
flesh, that is, those who do not restrain their flesh,
but allow it to overcome the spirit, cannot please
God (Rom. 8:8). Therefore, though we live in the
flesh, we should not live for the flesh! For if ye live
after the flesh, ye shall die (Rom. 8:12) an eternal
death; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the
deeds of the body, ye shall live (Rom. 8:13) an
eternal, blessed life. The flesh is essentially restrained
by the spirit; but the spirit can only take control of the
flesh and rule it when it is prepared to submit to its
crucifixion. The flesh is crucified by fasting, vigil,
kneeling in prayer, and other bodily labors placed upon it
wisely and within measure. A bodily labor that is wise and
within measure frees the body from heaviness and
corpulence, refines its strength, keeps it ever light and
capable of activity. They that are Christ’s,
says the Apostle, have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts (Gal. 5:24).
What does it mean to take up our cross, and take up
specifically our own cross? It means that every
Christian should patiently bear those very insults and
persecutions from the world that come to him, and
not any others. This means that every Christian should
manfully and constantly war with those very passions and
sinful thoughts that arise in him. It means that every
Christian should with obedience and dedication to
God’s will, with confession of God’s justice
and mercy, with thankfulness to God, endure those very
sorrows and deprivations that Divine Providence allows to
come upon him, and not some other things painted and
presented to him by his proud dreams. This means being
satisfied with those bodily labors that correspond to our
physical strength, the ones that our flesh require in
order to keep it in order, and not to seek after increased
fasting and vigil, or all other ascetic feats beyond our
measure, which destroy our physical health and direct our
spirit towards high self-opinion and self deceit, as St.
John Climacus describes.[2] All mankind labors and suffers
upon the earth, but these sufferings differ; the
passions differ that war against us, the sorrows and
temptations differ that God sends us for our healing,
for the cleansing away of our sins. What differences
there are in people’s physical strength, in their
very health! Precisely: every person has his own
cross. And each Christian is commanded to accept this
cross of his own with self-denial, and to follow
Christ. He who has denied himself and taken up his own
cross has made peace with himself and with his own
circumstances, with his own position both internal and
external; and only he can reasonably and correctly
follow Christ.
What does it mean to follow Christ? It means studying the
Gospels, having the Gospels as the only guide of the
activity of our mind, heart, and body. It means adapting
our thoughts to the Gospels, tuning the feelings of our
heart to the Gospels, and serving as an expression of the
Gospels by all our deeds and movements, both secret and
open. As we said before, only the person who has escaped
deceit through voluntary humility (Col. 2:18), who
has desired to obtain true humility of wisdom where it
abides—in obedience and submission to God—is
capable of following Christ. He who has entered into
submission to God, into obedience combined with complete
self-denial, has taken up his own cross, and
accepted and confessed this cross to be his own.
Beloved brothers and sisters! Bowing down bodily to
worship the precious Cross of the Lord today according to
the rule of the Holy Church, we bow down also in spirit!
We venerate the precious Cross of Christ—our weapon
of victory and banner of Christ’s glory—each
confessing from his own cross, “I have received the
due reward of my deeds! Remember me, O Lord, when Thou
comest into Thy Kingdom!” By recognizing our
sinfulness with thankfulness to God and submission to His
will, we make our cross—that instrument of execution
and mark of dishonor—an instrument of victory and
sign of glory, like unto the Cross of the Lord. Through
the cross we open paradise to ourselves. Let us not allow
ourselves any evil murmuring, and especially not any
soul-destroying blasphemy, which is often heard from the
lips of the blind and hardened sinner, who writhes and
thrashes upon his cross, vainly endeavoring to escape from
it. With murmuring and blasphemy the cross becomes
unbearably heavy, dragging to hell the one crucified upon
it. “What have I done?” cries the sinner in
denial of his sinfulness, accusing the just and merciful
God of injustice and mercilessness, blaming and rejecting
God’s Providence. The one who saw the Son of God
crucified, mockingly and evilly demanded of him, If
thou be Christ, save thyself and us (Lk.
23:39),—let him now come down from the cross
(Mt. 27:42). But our Lord Jesus Christ was
pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh and to endure
death[3] in order by the cross to make
peace between God and man, and to save mankind by death
from eternal death. Having prepared the holy Apostles
for this great event—the incarnate
God-man’s sufferings and shameful death, potent
to redeem the human race—the Lord informed the
Apostles in good time that He must be given over into
the hands of sinners, must suffer much, be killed, and
resurrected. This forewarning seemed strange and
unlikely to certain of the holy Apostles. Then the Lord
called unto Him his disciples and said to them:
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow me. Amen.
St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
Translated by Nun Cornelia (Rees)
[1] St. Symeon the New Theologian, according to the book written in verse, homily 55.
[2] The Ladder of Divine Ascent, homily 26.
[3] Troparion to the Resurrection, tone 5.
