The device that was used to execute condemned criminals is now used to bring life for wayward sinners like you and I! This piece of wood that held the dead body of our Lord could not and did not consume the Alpha and the Omega; no, this Holy Cross is our beginning of life without end, a life encompassed by the loving embrace of our Procreator. Our Creator loves His creation!
We celebrate this feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at the beginning of the church year and at the beginning of another school year! The Church reminds us that only through humility can we embrace salvation and our Lord showed us through His example throughout His time in the flesh. For the Lamb was slain not to pay our debt but to rescue us from our fallen condition and offer us sinners a relationship with God. Just how hard it is for this mortal man to understand the kind of love that is perfect and not flawed by our human woundedness and wickedness. Our Creator loves His creation!
And although I have tasted the sweetness of salvation and felt the warm embrace of God, my habitual frame of mind tends to return me to sinfulness, like a dog seeking his vomit, finding deathful rest in the comfortable surroundings of my past frequent worldly choices, again and again.(Prov 26:11) And when I finally come to my senses and realize my emptiness, I then fall down at the cross confessing my sinfulness and lack of trust in anything other than myself, and in that humility I regain and realign my path to eternity, and my Father welcomes me home. Our Creator loves His creation!
Hear the words of the golden tongue, St. John Chrysostom: “But we are able to see Christ’s inexpressible love for man not only from the cross itself but also from the words which He spoke while upon the cross. At the very time when He was nailed and they were mocking Him, deriding Him and spitting upon Him, He said: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34)… At the same time that they were saying, “If You are the Son of God save Yourself,” He was accomplishing everything necessary to save these same ones who were reproaching Him. …He did forgive them, if they wished to repent, because if He had not forgiven them this sin, Paul would not have become an apostle;’ if He had not forgiven them this sin, the three thousand and the five thousand, and the many other thousands, would not have immediately believed.” Our Creator loves His creation!
Perhaps you too are feeling overwhelmed by the dark shadows of this world. It is time for a change! You are not alone! You are a member of this family. Our God begs you: “Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is good and My burden is light.” [Mt. 11:28-30] Our Creator loves His creation!
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone who believeth in Him should not perish, but may have everlasting life. For God did not send forth His Son into the world in order that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” [Jn. 3:16-17]
You are His creation and God yearns for your return. You have been called, come, won’t you come? Glory to God who has shown us the Light! Our Creator loves His creation!
Fr. Gabriel Weller 9-26-2021
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