Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross 2023

Ambon Prayer 47 (Slav) or 48 (Greek)

The Holy Martyr Sophia and her three children Faith, Hope and Charity

Dismissal: “May Christ our true God, risen from the death have mercy on us and save us, through the prayers of his most holy Mother, by the power of the honorable and life-creating Cross, whose universal exaltation we gloriously celebrate . . . “

Title

Losing one’s life to find it

Outline

I receive advertisements about how to find my life

The way to knowing your true self is through this way of meditation

The way to knowing your true self if through this way of self-realization therapy

The way to knowing and experiencing your true self is through this way of eating, of exercise, or of testing.

All have a series of rules and practices one must follow and/or a community one must join

All promise happiness and fulfillment

Imagine the shock, then, if such people would read Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The way to finding is by identifying my ego with the crucified Christ; I therefore no longer live. Rather, it is the resurrected Christ living in me. I live this way by trusting in him, which I can do because he loved me and gave himself for me.

It is no longer the egodrama, but the theodrama. It is no longer my being my own god, but my being in the one God, my divinization.

The cross has become the door to life and I by God’s grace leave my ego on the outside of the door, the death side.

Paul is simply applying Jesus

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” One must deny one’s ego directedness and all that pertains to it, which is what it means to take up one’s cross and head to execution - it is a process, but it is a process of following Jesus to his death in which he is stripped of all that belongs to this life. If we try to cling on to our ego lives and what pertains to it - money, power, honor, and pleasure in this world - we will lose life. It is in losing one’s life for Jesus’ sake that we find true life.

This means that fulfillment is still future: “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” We confess Christ and his standards and his way in this generation, this world, and he will confess we are in him in the coming, but do the opposite and he will do the opposite.

Brothers and Sisters let me give you some help with this

First, meditate regularly on these and similar sayings. Ask God to show you how it works in this life. He will in his time and way and it may be an ah ha experience or a difficult experience, but he will answer that prayer.

Second, read and reflect on the lives of the saints, East and West. It may be helpful to reflect on saints in your own calling in life but do not underestimate those who are quite different: for me recently it has been Karol Józef Wojtyła and perhaps St Seraphim of Sarov. But there have been many others. I will never be archbishop or pope and I have no plans to live in the forests of Russia, but they have helped me die to self and live in Jesus, each in their own way.

Third, pray the Jesus prayer regularly, or some similar mantra, so it can undergird one’s thought.

Fourth, participate in the divine mysteries and reflect on them, for they revolve around the mystery of death and life in the cross.

There are many messages out there in the world, some of them human and some of them demonic, so if we are to actualize the message of Jesus in us and help others to do likewise, we must constantly be reflecting on the core message of Jesus and his Apostles.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Julian) 10-1-2023: Sunday after Holy Cross

EPISTLE

Galatians 2:16–20

16 yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. 17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! 18 But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

GOSPEL

Byzantine Lectionary (Julian) 10-1-2023: Sunday after Holy Cross

Mark 8:34–9:1

34 And he called to him the multitude with his disciples, and said to them, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37 For what can a man give in return for his life? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Chapter 9

1 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-17-2023: Sunday after Holy Cross

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2023 | ELEVATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 9-17-2023: Sunday after Holy Cross

SUNDAY AFTER HOLY CROSS

Dark Vestments

Epistle Galatians 2:16–20

Gospel Mark 8:34–9:1

RED