Holy Metropolis of Kythira – Sunday's message (September 14, 2025)

SUNDAY MESSAGE (audio message) FROM HIS EMINENCE THE METROPOLITAN
KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA SERAPHIM

ASCENSION SUNDAY
OF THE HOLY AND LIFE-GIVING CROSS
(14-09-2025)

WRITTEN DIVINE PROCLAMATION

In last Sunday’s sermon, my dear friends, we spoke about the Holy Cross as the eternal and indestructible glory of the Church. There we emphasized that the Cross of Christ is our boast, because through it reconciliation was accomplished—that is, reconciliation and peace between humanity and God. This is interwoven with the mystery of the Cross, but it also constitutes that mystery itself—that is, a) the manifestation of God’s goodness and love toward humanity, since «For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son» (John 3:13–17), and b) the self-emptying of the Word of God, once and for all, and «He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant» (Phil. 1:7) without, of course, ceasing to be God.

In today’s sermon, let us briefly refer to two events that foreshadowed and revealed the Mystery of the Cross in the Old. Indeed, many Fathers throughout the centuries have found numerous prefigurations of the Cross in relevant events of that era. As St. Gregory Palamas notes: «The cross of Christ was foretold and prefigured from ancient times» (PG 151, 124).

One event that foreshadowed the Cross is the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelite people, which had to be carried out quickly under Moses« guidance, because the Egyptians had changed their minds and decided to prevent the Israelites from leaving their country. At that critical moment, Moses raised his staff, “He stretched out (i.e., vertically)…his hand over the sea…and the waters parted, and the children of Israel went through» (Ex. 14:15–25). Then, when the Israelites had crossed over, the Church’s hymn says, Moses struck the sea horizontally and joined its two parted sides, thus forming the sign of the Cross and drowning Pharaoh’s chariots.

At the same time, when the Amalekites, a warlike and savage people, attacked the Israelites, the latter were forced to fight. At that critical moment, Moses climbed a hill. There he stretched out his arms to the sides, forming the shape of a cross. As long as he remained in that position, the forces of Israel prevailed; however, when Moses, due to exhaustion, was forced to lower his hands, the Israelite forces were defeated (Ex. 17: 8–16). That is this reason, Aaron and Hur held up Moses’s hands, and thus the Israelites defeated the Amalekites.

In both cases, it appears that it was the Cross that saved the Jews. That is why we can speak of participation, that is, participation—communion—in the mystery of the Cross, since some are redeemed through it and others are condemned, emphasizing the real and inevitable nature of the power of the Cross. The Apostle Paul, testifying to the transformative nature of the power of the Cross, says: ’For the message of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.» (1 Cor. 1:18).

In the final analysis, the Cross was at work even in the Old Testament, from the very creation of the world, before the Crucifixion, and after it, as a mystery embodying the significance of God’s love. Let us take care and strive to share in the saving power of the Cross, through sacrificial love for God, so that we may be numbered among the saved and not among the lost.

Hierodeacon Ierotheos Creticus Creticus