His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian: the wood of the cross - "material sign" of the history of our salvation

Thursday, September 14, 2023, on the day of the celebration of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian celebrated the Holy Liturgy at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. George and St. Epictetus and Astion of Saint-Hubert, Quebec, having around Protosingelos Maxim Morariu, the ecclesiarch of the cathedral and Rev. Fr. Aurel Sas.

In the sermon delivered at the end of the Holy Liturgy, the hierarch emphasized the historical and spiritual significance of this great religious feast:

"Today's celebration is both historical and spiritual. Today we remember the historical moment, when after the freedom given to Christians by St. Emperor Constantine the Great, Empress Elena, sent by her son to Jerusalem, finds the wood of the Cross on which Christ was crucified (...). Today is very much related to the material element of the Cross - its wood. It was rediscovered as a 'material sign' of the history of our salvation, as a sign of the victory of life over death.

At the same time, today we think of the Cross as the central element of our spirituality and faith. Both at the service performed last night and today at the end of the Holy Liturgy, I said that their ecphonesis as on a Sunday commemorates the Resurrection. The explanation is that, in the Orthodox Church, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are never separated. Crucifixion always leads to Resurrection. Christ's resurrection and ours would not have happened without Christ's crucifixion. This is because Christ being crucified on the cross, crucified our human nature which before Christ led to death. What Christ abolishes by His sacrifice is death. He rises on the third day, and we see that the signs of the crucifixion, the nails with which he was nailed and the spear with which He was pierced are evident even after the Resurrection. We see this on Thomas's Sunday, when we read the passage that tells us about Christ entering the upper room where the disciples were gathered, through the locked doors and saying to Thomas: ‘Reach your finger here and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing’ (John 20, 27). This shows that the Resurrection and the Crucifixion are not separate. They remain as 'necessary' signs, not for God, but for our faith, for us as people, to see that our resurrection is due to the crucifixion of Christ. Christ shows the signs of the crucifixion to the Holy Apostles so that they understand that the One who lived with them for three and a half years preaching and being recognized as their Teacher, is the same even after the Resurrection, ensuring this coherence and consistency of faith between the One who was before and He who reveals Himself after the Resurrection, thus proving that He is the One who brings from death to life.”

Speaking about the connection between the cross and contemporary society the hierarch of Canada said:

"The cross remains a spiritual reality for us. We are exposed to as many philosophical propositions, to as many doctrines and ideologies in modern society as every generation in the past has been exposed to. We are exposed to a more 'esthetical' presentation depending on the means at our disposal, but each generation depending on the era was exposed to the temptations, ideologies, proposals and sins of this world. What does the cross mean for us in this sense? It means keeping our faith pure and genuine; it means to dialogue with this world and its proposals bearing in mind the cross of Christ and His words. This means that the Christian has the armor of Christ, which St. Paul speaks of and through which he looks at the realities of this world with the mind of Christ. This fact causes us as Christians to crucify our understanding so that we can think about our life and the world with the mind of Christ. To do so is to return man to his primordial unity as created by God, that is to think with the mind of Christ the Son of God. This is the spiritual meaning of the cross of Christ."

Next, the hierarch of Canada invited Fr. Aurel Sas to present the books he has written in recent years. He also invited the faithful to pay attention to these books which are important landmarks for their faith and mission.

At the end, the hierarc blessed those present.

(notes by Nun Ana)