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On September 27, 2010, the Elevation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of Our Lady the Joy to All the Afflicted in Bolshaya Ordynka in Moscow.

After the liturgy His Eminence Hilarion addressed the congregation, saying in particular,

“On the Day of the Elevation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross, the Church brings out the holy cross for us to venerate it and remember our Saviour’s call to each of us to carry our own cross. The Lord Himself gave us a model of cross-carrying, when He carried His Cross on the way to Golgotha, on this He was crucified for our sins. The Lord says that each of us should carry our own cross that He has placed on us and which is placed on us by life itself.

Each of us has his or her own cross to carry. This cross is formed from our sorrows, trials, ‘difficult’ people around us, complicated circumstances and illnesses – all that makes our life difficult and sad. Desire of happiness is inherent in us, together with a desire of rest and peace, pleasures and joy of life. The life of many however takes a different course: joy comes to be replaced by sorrow, instead of being healthy we are ill, instead of a good person we meet an evil one. This is what makes up our life cross. It is never backbreaking because the Lord spares our resources. He gives us a cross we are able to carry”.

Metropolitan Hilarion called the faithful, looking at the Cross of Christ, to think over their life and the way in which we make our life journey:

“To understand how this God’s commandment may be fulfilled, we should look at the lives of saints. St. John Chrysostom, who died on the Day of the Elevation of the Cross and whose memory we celebrate today, carried his cross of life to the end. We know from the history of the Church that this great saint and preacher, who was applauded by people in Constantinople, was very popular, was well received at the emperor’s palace, and left remarkable works read by Orthodox Christians to this day. Because of human envy, St. John Chrysostom was deposed from the throne of Constantinople and sent into exile. On this way to the place of his repose, he wrote comforting letter to Deaconess Olympiada, in which, instead of complaining, he tried to give consolation and strength to her, saying that one had to endure all the sorrows that fell to one’s lot.

When St. John Chrysostom, exhausted after many months of journey and broken physically but not spiritually, was placing his spirit in the hands of the God at the remote Abkhazian village of Comana, he said: ‘Thank God for everything’. These words can be a life motto for each of us. We easily thank God for joys, victories and acquisitions, for beautiful days we spent, for nice people we met. But how difficult it is to thank God for an illness, grief, trial, evil person we met on our way – for all that makes up the cross of our life…

Let us pray to the Lord that He Who carried His Cross to the end may help us to carry our own cross of life. Let us turn with prayer to saints so that by their lives and works they may teach us to live and fulfil his commandment of God”.

DECR Communication Service