On Sunday, His Grace Bishop Paisie of Sinaia explained the significance of Jesus Christ’s call: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” The Patriarchal Auxiliary Bishop emphasized that this is a “life program” for all Christians.
“Christ does not force people toward the Cross ahead of Him; He invites them to follow Him—because He first carried the Cross,” the bishop underlined. “That is why He is our Way and Guide on this journey through life, to which we are all called, each bearing our own cross.”
In the Gospel read in churches on the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, this life program, aimed at salvation, includes several stages, which the bishop explained as follows:
1. Denying oneself means humbling oneself, letting go of one’s own often limited and narrow plans, to accept God’s plan.
2. Taking up your cross is not “an exaltation of pain as a means to please God” but “the greatest proof of love.” “The Christian does not seek suffering for its own sake but seeks love. And the cross, accepted and embraced, becomes a sign of love and total devotion.”
3. Losing (giving up) your life (soul) for Christ is “the condition for saving your soul, your life. It’s a paradox that translates as follows: you give everything to receive everything! You risk, out of great love, even your salvation for the sake of others when you understand the kind of love with which God loves us.”
What It Means to Lose Your Life for Christ
Regarding the last paradoxical stage of this program, His Grace recalled that “the Prophet Moses fully experienced this when he preferred to be erased from the Book of Life for the sake of the people God had chosen him to lead. Likewise, Saint Paul the Apostle said he wished to be anathema for his fellow Israelites, hoping to win their salvation.”
“Both were willing to lose even their own salvation because of their great love for their brothers. This attitude is always present among the great saints of the Church, like the Holy Fathers of the Desert, who would not even want to enter heaven without those they prayed for.”
The Cross as a Celebration of Love
“Honouring the Cross means celebrating love—a love that God first showed us, and we are called to extend to others. Whoever loves knows God, and whoever knows God loves those around him. This is the experience of the Cross,” said the bishop.
The Path of the Cross, the Path of Love
“It may seem strange that today, in a society that considers itself so evolved and progressive, the Church, two millennia after Christ’s crucifixion, still points to the Cross as the path to authentic life and happiness. However, the Church has always believed and confessed that salvation is only in the Cross of Christ,” His Grace continued.
“The path of life is the path of faith and sacrifice. It may even be the path of the Cross. But it leads us to Christ’s plan and helps us deny ourselves. It is the path to salvation in a society often fragmented, confused, and contradictory; it is the path to the happiness of following Christ to the end in the often dramatic circumstances of daily life; it is the path unafraid of failures, difficulties, marginalization, or loneliness because it fills the human heart with the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the path of peace and profound joy of the heart.”
Our God Is Great Because He Becomes Small
“According to natural logic, if we talk about God, He must be powerful, commanding, and ruling. Yet, on the Cross, this God seems vulnerable, abandoned—attributes that, according to the same logic, cannot be associated with God,” Bishop Paisie of Sinaia continued.
“However, this is precisely where the superiority of Christianity lies, as a revealed Gospel and religion. Our God is great precisely because He becomes small. He descends into the world, takes human form, and appears unnoticed, out of love for the people He brought into existence.”
“Our God wants to be called Father, but not from afar; He wants to be in the midst of the world, fully living man’s life,” His Grace added.
“The Cross is, in fact, God’s eternal declaration of love for humanity!”
Photo: Basilica.ro / Raluca Ene
