Third Sunday of the Great Fast - Veneration of the Holy Coss

Divine Liturgy of St Basil

Red Vestments are worn

Trishagion: “We bow before your cross, O Lord . . .” and priest venerates cross on Tetrapod

Ambon Prayer 15

The Holy Martyr Eutropius and his companions Cleonicus and Basiliscus

Dismissal: “May Christ our true God, risen from the dead, through the prayers of his most holy Mother, by the power of the honorable and life-giving cross. . . “

Title

Take Up Your Cross and Follow the High Priest and Victim

Outline

There are two movements in our readings

The first is the High Priest after the Order of Mechizedek

He has finished his race and thus is in the heavens to care for us

He is fully human and therefore can empathize with us - he understands our weaknesses. Indeed, “He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.” The good news is that he did not give in to weakness and so can help us.

Finally, he was appointed by God as eternal high priest, the one who is both priest and victim, offering himself on our behalf, since it was not needed on his own behalf.

That is our leader whose suffering culminated in the cross.

The second is our bearing the cross in the following of and identification with Christ.

We see this literally in the early martyrs: St Ignatius of Antioch, St Polycarp, among others who denied themselves and embraced suffering and death for the sake of Christ.

We see this really, if less literally, in more recent saints like Pope St John Paul II who spent himself in pastoral care, in over 100 “pilgrimages” around the world, in prayerful and humble leadership in major ethical and political issues (often being reviled), in ascetic lifestyle and kept it up until literally the day of his death, to his last whisper.

But why is this identification? It is so that while we my lose physical life we may gain the life of the resurrection through our identification with Jesus. It is so that while we may be reviled for holding fast to Jesus’ words and being we will be honored by him when he comes.

Indeed, it is those who take up the cross and identify with it “who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power,” first perhaps in the transfiguration, but primarily in the resurrection.

As one ancient holy man said, by taking up the cross and giving up the pleasures of this age they can become “all fire” -all total identification with God.

We know whom we follow and what it will cost but God determines the means

We look to and identify with Christ the High Priest, suffering for others. He has already shown his care and understanding for us.

He invites us to be one with him, to take up our cross which is a sharing in his cross, and to do so for the benefit of others.

How we do that, whether through martyrdom, persecution, rejection, exhausting service, sickness or disability accepted in identification with him or in some other way is up to him and his Father. We simply abandon ourselves to God’s will, God’s providence. That is what losing one’s life means.

But the result is the same: union with Christ and honor before the Father - the full life of the coming age. It will not take but a second of that result to make us look back and say, “I wish I could have suffered more in identification with him.” One priest, one victim, and we are called to be one with him in both.