Dear brethren,
In the occasion of the Holy Week, we mention part of the commentary of St. Cyril the great on the verse: “And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him” (John 19: 17-18), hoping to be a material for our contemplation during this week:
“They now lead out the author of life to die. Even this, however, was done for our sakes. By the incomprehensible power and design of God, His suffering accomplished an unexpected reversal. The passion of Christ set a snare, as it were, for the power of death, and the Lord’s death was the source of renewal to incorruptibility and newness of life. Bearing on His shoulders the wood on which He was about to be crucified, He went out, condemned already and suffering the sentence of death, even though He was innocent. And He did it for us. He took upon Himself the punishment that the law justly assigns to sinners. He became “a curse for us”, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Gal 3: 13). We are all cursed because we cannot fulfill the divine law …
“Christ, then, does not bear a cross of His own deserving but one that we deserved and that hung over us as far as the condemnation of the law is concerned. Just as He died not for Himself but for us, that He might become for us the author of eternal life, destroying in Himself the power of death so also He takes upon Himself the cross that we deserved, condemning in Himself the condemnation of the law…
“What Christ accomplished will be of great benefit to our souls (I mean as an example of courage in the service of God). I think there is no other way for us to arrive as perfection in virtue and complete union with God except to value Love for Him more than we value earthly life and to be willing and eager to risk ourselves for the truth if the occasion calls for it. Indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ says: “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Math 10: 38). I think that “take up the cross” means nothing other than bidding farewell to the world for God’s sake and placing our life in the flesh behind the hope of glory, if it should come to that …
“In another sense those who are united with Christ are surely also crucified with Him. They undergo the death, as it were, of their old behavior and are transformed to a new evangelical life. St. Paul said: “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5: 24). And again, speaking of all people in words describing himself: “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2: 19-20). He also writes to certain people, “if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world?” (Col 2: 20). The death of worldly behavior raises us up to the beginnings of the behavior and life in Christ”.
May the blessings of St. Mary & St Mercurius, and the blessings of these Holy days be with us all.
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