Homily - Through the Cross to Pascha

Welcome to Ortho Analytica.

This is the podcast of Father Anthony Perkins,

a priest, seminary professor, retired military intelligence warrant officer,

and politologist.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, all men,

glory to Jesus Christ.

Halfway through Lent, the cross stands as a divider,

as it stands to the divider before all time and between all men.

What was before and what is to come in him.

Now, Christ here in the gospel, he's talking as if coming after or following him is something good.

What is that all about?

Where is he going?

Where would he lead us?

Now, Christ, he talks about denying ourselves.

In the next verse, he ties that denial of self to being willing to die.

All of this language sounds important and we have to get it right.

There is a great lie in our world.

This great lie is that all religions are basically the same.

But Scripture warns us that the devil himself can appear as an angel of light.

Brothers and sisters, it is not enough just to have faith in something.

Why in the world, if this were true, would there be so many warnings in the Bible about idolatry

against worshiping false gods?

Now, some people, they focus on sexual sin.

This is important, but even Scripture often uses sexual sin as a metaphor for something even worse, worshiping false gods.

Now, one is bad, but the other is even worse, just as marriage is good,

but union with God is even greater.

So we need to get this cross thing right.

Now, looking into the message, of course the cross has worked its way into our vernacular,

into our common parlance, our regular language,

and that language points it towards perseverance.

But is it just about perseverance?

Is that what it means that everyone has their own cross to bear?

Well, kind of.

But even that needs to be grounded.

We are not simply stoics.

Or if we are stoics, then we are stoics of a very particular kind.

So then what is this grounding? What is this foundation? What is the deeper magic?

What is this cross all about?

Yes, it does involve pain, but not just any pain.

We want to understand we have to look at the prototype.

We are Christians. Christ is our standard pun intended.

His cross was painful, but it was pain put to a purpose.

It was sacrificial. He gave himself his dignity, his comfort, his life as a sacrifice.

And all sacrifice involves something valuable, something costly, something difficult.

For us pain, giving up our comfort can be like that.

The cross was Christ's sacrifice on behalf of the people and the world that he loved.

This gives us something to work with.

Taking up our cross means doing things that are hard on behalf of others.

At the very least it means denying what we may prefer so that others may thrive in him.

For Christ that meant leaving the place where he was given the glory and honor that was his due

and coming to live in a world where he would be disrespected, misunderstood, tortured and killed.

And he did it so that we, the ones he loved, loves despite everything, so that we could join him in eternal glory.

When we voluntarily sacrifice our time, when we put up with people who misunderstand us, who may not value us,

who may never fully appreciate what it is that we are doing, and we do it out of a desire for their health and salvation in his name.

Then we are taking up our cross and following Christ into glory.

So be patient when your ego tells you to lash out.

Be courageous when your instincts tell you to hide.

Figure out what love requires in each moment and then dedicate yourselves to it.

In addition to patience and courage, this also requires paying attention.

It requires humility. It requires dedication to the needs of the moment.

This doesn't come naturally and it surely won't be easy.

But this is the cup that our Lord accepted in the Garden of Gethsemane, the cup that led to the salvation of the world.

And when we drink of that cup, we are united to him through his passion on that cross.

But we must remember something very important.

Yes, sacrifice, yes, paying, yes, paying attention, yes, all to all of these things.

That we have to remember brothers and sisters that the cross is not the end of the story.

Christ did not go to the cross in order to remain in the grave on behalf of us sinners.

He went through the cross into glory, into resurrection.

And this is exactly where the church is leading us during great length.

We are walking the road of the cross, denial of self, so that we may stand together in the light of Pascha.

Of course, our Lord Himself told us how this works.

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

In Christ, suffering, pain, the cross is never the final word.

What passes through the cross is changed.

We die with Him so that we might live with Him.

Buried with Him in death, we rise with Him into newness of life.

Say, Maximus, the confessor reinforces this point so clear in the gospel and the epistles.

The one who participates in Christ's sufferings also shares in His glory.

Suffering offered in love becomes glory. Sacrifice becomes participation in His glorious life.

And even death becomes the doorway to greater life.

This is the mystery the church sings every year at Pascha.

Yesterday, I was buried with thee, O Christ, today I arise with thee in thy resurrection.

This is where Christ is leading us through the cross, through the pain, through the sacrifice.

Interresurrection.

So when the moment comes, it will come when love requires something difficult from you.

Do not be afraid of the cross. Take it up.

Follow Him because on the other side of the cross is life.

Life with Christ. Life with all the saints.

And life in the glory of the kingdom.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Well, that's it for today.

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You can also check out my other podcast at Ancient Faith Radio, Good Guys Wear Black.

Until next time, Godspeed.