Sunday after the Exultation of the Cross
Galatians 2:16-20; St. Mark 8:34-9:1
On the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross, Fr. Anthony reflects on Christ’s call to “take up your cross and follow Me.” Drawing on the imagery of military service, he shows how the Christian life demands selfless duty, not comfort, as we bear the Cross in love rather than mere suffering. He contrasts the marketer’s dream of the radiant sun with the scandal of the Cross, explaining why the Church, in wisdom, sets the Cross—not the Sun—as its banner. In Christ, the Cross becomes not a sign of death, but the Tree of Life that transforms our pain into victory and joy.
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Homily: the Cross and the Sun
The Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross
“Take up your cross and follow me”
There are many ways to understand this command. Many take it as God’s way of saying we need to put up with all the sufferings that our bodies give us. That’s true, but there’s more to it that. I want to use the example of the soldier to explain how. In the army, we would sing as we walked. It made the time go by more quickly, developed camaraderie, and taught us some valuable life lessons. One of the most popular went like this:
82nd patch on my shoulder,
pick up your chutes and follow me,
Airborne infantry,
10th Mountain patch on my shoulder,
pick up your rucks and follow me,
Mountain Infantry.
That is what comes into mind every time I hear; “take up your cross and follow me”. The new verse might go something like this;
Christ the Saviour patch on my shoulder
pick up your cross and follow me,
Christian infantry.
Why is this useful?
Think about it: what are these things that the soldiers are picking up? Why do they pick them up? They use these things to battle the nation’s enemies. They use these things to protect their families and keep their nation safe. Most of all, these things are used in selfless service and duty for something other than themselves.
Why do we pick up the cross? For the same reason. Selfless service and duty for something other than ourselves. Is there suffering involved? Yes. Soldiers suffer. But it’s not about the suffering, it’s about the love (call it duty, that’s fine). Yes. Christ suffered. But it’s not about the suffering; its about the love. Is there suffering involved for us? Yes. But we don’t count it as suffering. It is just the cost of doing what is right.
The Cross: A marketer’s nightmare
Have you ever thought about the implications of having the Cross as our standard? It isn’t the kind of thing that a marketing team would come up with. After all, who would market their product by saying, “Try this – it will cause a lot of pain!” Marketers would have chosen the wonderful image of the Sun: it gives warmth, allows things to grow, and makes it so that we can see things as they really are. Plus, in English at least, it is a homophone for “the Son”, so putting the “Sun of Righteousness” on our shields and chests could still be a witness of our reverence for Christ, our King and God.
The Sun of Righteousness
People love the sun. I probably took it for granted growing up in the south, but after living in New England and other parts of the North for most of my adult life, I love and appreciate it even more now. A sunrise after a long and difficult night gives new hope; a warm sun after a trying winter brings new life to tired bones. Another tie-in that would make this a shoe-in for the marketing team is that we orient our churches to the East so that we can await the coming of the Messiah – again, the “Sun of Righteousness”. The sun is such a huge part of our human subconscious, and it resonates with our Christian theology – surely it would be a better advertisement of the healing and resurrection power of the Church than a cross!
Think about it! The cross is the opposite of the sun. The sun builds up life, the cross destroys it. The sun gives comfort and warmth, the cross brings pain. Everyone recognizes the value of the sun; the only ones who value the cross are tyrants and psychopaths – and they certainly don’t want it for themselves. The marketers wring their hands, wondering who could possibly be attracted by such a symbol!
The Logic of the Cross of Christ
So why the cross? I have told you before that when the Orthodox Church reveals something to me that doesn’t make sense, I rejoice because it means I am about to learn something new and grow as a Christian.
[Leave aside the fact that non-human representations of Christ are problematic, e.g. the 82nd Canon of the Council of Trullo…]
The Sun might have been the perfect emblem for us if we had not broken our covenant with God in the Garden of Eden. Just as plants in the well-tended garden mature upwards towards the rays of the Sun, we were made to grow naturally towards the goodness emanating from the Christ. Take a look sometime at the iconography from Genesis, chapter one. There is a series by Michael Kapeluk available from the Ancient Faith Store, but the originals are in the chapel of St. Thomas at All Saints Camp in Northwestern PA, one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on God’s green earth. Those icons provide a literal depiction of Christ in human form, bringing all the forms of creation into being (we recite this truth in the Creed every day; Christ is the one “through whom all things were made”).
Had we not chosen to grow according to our own will instead [a will that has become increasingly warped], we would have grown toward Christ from blameless simplicity into perfection, moving from blessing to blessing for all eternity. So, to reiterate, the sun might have been a useful image for Christian theosis had we never fallen.
This idea [of the Sun as our banner] is still attractive to us now because we want to pretend that the love God has for us is strong enough to grow us into joyful perfection all on its own. We want to pretend as if we have no flaws that access to better sun and soil could not overcome. The problem is, to continue the agricultural metaphor in the same way Jesus often did, [the problem is] that our roots are ruined. They can grow nothing but nettles and weeds. Without correcting the fatal flaws inherent within us, better soil and sunlight will only make for a bigger patch of poison ivy – it cannot turn that ivy into grape vines, wheat, or roses. And even that result [that is, of bigger weeds] is only for the short term – Christ tells us what will happen to such weeds in the long term: they will be thrown into the fire (St. Matthew 13:30).
The Sun of Righteousness is a dead-end for weeds! Our roots must be removed and our branches grafted to the True Vine in order for the rays and heat of the Sun of Righteousness to bring us everlasting growth and goodness. Pruning is painful. Grafting takes effort. No one wants to do it, but the untended garden is a curse to your yard. No one wants to do the work, but we know we have to. So here’s the segue:
We must be grafted to the Tree of Life, and that Tree is the Cross.
Why We Love the Cross
The Cross is the work of salvation. Putting to death the old man so that the new one can live in Christ – this is how we are transformed into perfection. Yes, it will be painful. Excising sin and unhealthy habits is not a lot of fun. But it has to be done. It’s not a lot of fun to be patient and charitable in the face of hatred and stupidity, but that is the path of transformation.
We crucify our own sins, nailing them to the cross so that we can be forgiven and learn to live without them, but we are also crucified by a world that quickly turns against those who truly live in Christ and have Him living in them.
If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 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. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; (John 15:18-20a)
If we desire salvation, if we desire joy, if we desire to do good, then we must sew on that patch, deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Christ. Being a Christian is not easy – we are sinful and so is the world we live in – but it is the only right and rational thing to do. If we are comfortable as Christians, then we aren’t really trying. The Cross is not comfortable, but it is our sign and symbol because it is the only path to victory.
Epilogue
All of you know pain. All of you are tortured by crosses. I have known you long enough to know the pain this world causes you. For many of you, that pain and confusion has multiplied over the last couple of weeks. Those crosses are real. The pain they cause is real. There is no end to the number of crosses in this world, but there is only one cross that saves, and that is the Cross of Christ. We cannot choose what this world does to us, we cannot avoid the pain this world inflicts on us – but if we live our pain as Christ did on the Cross, our pain will transform us into invincible warriors and holy saints and this world into a garden of grace and delight.
All other crosses lead inexorably to death, but the Cross of Christ is the way of eternal peace and perfection.
