SUNDAY MESSAGE (audio message)
BY HIS EMINENCE THE METROPOLITAN
KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA SERAPHIM
THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT –
FEAST OF THE VENERATION OF THE CROSS
(23-3-2025)
WRITTEN DIVINE PROCLAMATION
Foolishness and Power
Certainly, my brothers and sisters, it was not only the Lord Jesus who suffered martyrdom by dying on the Cross.
Thousands upon thousands of Roman slaves met their end through this horrific and shameful death. Each one who was judged by the world-ruling Rome if found to have violated the unyielding Roman law (and provided they were not Roman citizens), died on the cross.
Moreover, many myths from Eastern religions referred to the crucifixion of a messenger of God.
In this regard, Christ did not break new ground. On the contrary, He endured the reproach of the marginalized «criminals,» sharing in the human condition even unto death.A fate that human beings themselves—His own creations! —were building through the inspiration and collaboration of the Devil.
But the Cross of Golgotha was not like other crosses. Both the dramatic moments of the two—so different—thieves, and Jesus’ boundless forgiveness, not only toward the thief, but also toward His own crucifiers, demonstrate the abysmal difference between our Holy Cross and the crosses of Roman executions or the crossesof myths. For the crosses of the Romans and the crosses of myths do not lead to salvation. They do not foreshadow joy, because they do not lead to the Resurrection…
The Cross of our Christ, however, is life-giving, full of hope, a source of salvation, because upon it the Lord completed the work of our salvation through His sacrifice.
And when He said, «It is finished,» along with the painful end of His earthly life, He was already anticipating the joy of the Resurrection. Promising His disciples that «May your hearts rejoice, and may no one take your joy away from you.’.
Thus, the Cross of the Lord (foolishness to the rationalists and a stumbling block to those who considered His magnificent self-sacrifice incompatible with God) is for us «The power of God and the wisdom of God.».
Rev. P. Mariatos
