Christ is Immortality and honouring His Cross makes us partake in the energy of the uncreated light He dwells in, said the Patriarch of Jerusalem on Sunday. His Beatitude officiated the Divine Liturgy and the Cross Procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of the Lord.
The Patriarch was joined in service by Metropolitans Isychios of Kapitolias and Ivan (Serbian Patriarchate), Archbishops Theophanes of Gerassa, Aristarchos of Constantina, Methodios of Tabor, Theodosios of Sebastia, Nectarios of Anthedona, by Hagiotaphite Hieromonks and representatives of the Patriarchates of Moscow and Romania, as well as by other clerics.
The service was attended by the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Evangelos Vlioras, by members of the Jerusalem Community, by some pilgrims and by a group of Arab-speaking Orthodox Christians.
After the Divine Liturgy, the congregation was invited to the Patriarchate Reception Hall, where Patriarch Theophilos offered a sermon.

His Beatitude evoked a hymn sung at the Matins of the feast: “In Paradise of old the tree stripped me bare; for by giving me its fruit to eat the enemy brought in death. But now the Tree of the Cross that clothes men with the garment of life has been set up on earth and the whole world is filled with boundless joy. Beholding it venerated, O ye people, let us with one accord raise in faith our cry to God: His house is full of glory!” (Matins, Triodion, Troparion 1)
In this context, the Patriarch of Jerusalem recalled the affirmation made by St Theodore the Studite: “The Church has been revealed as a second Paradise, having within it, like the first Paradise of old, a tree of life, Thy Cross, O Lord. By touching it we share in immortality” (Triodion, Ode 5, Troparion 4)
“This immortality is no other than Christ Himself, ‘Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto’ (1 Timothy 6:16).”
“We also become participants of the energy of this light that no man can approach unto, my dear brethren, through the veneration of the Sacred Cross,” Patriarch Theophilos emphasized.

His Beatitude also quoted St. John Damascene, who explained that the wood of the Cross is “truly sacred, where Christ brought Himself a sacrifice for us… and it has been sanctified by the touch of the Holy Body and Blood”.
That is why “we venerate the type of the Sacred and Life-giving Cross, even if it is made of a different material, not worshipping the material [let it not be so] but the type of as a symbol of Christ,” explained the Patriarch.
“Today the Holy Church of Christ projects the Sacred Cross in adoration, which we, who live in the Holy City of Jerusalem ‘have worshipped at the place of His footstool’ (Psalm 132:7), that is the Holy Church of the Resurrection, in order to receive grace and power to complete the struggle of the Holy Lent,” added the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross has been ordained by the Church to be celebrated in the middle of the Holy and Great Lent so that the faithful may receive strength from the protection of the Holy Cross in the struggle of the fast.
Photo credit: Jerusalem Patriarchate
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