It is the secret of love that God predestined before the ages for our glory, and revealed it in the fullness of time so that all people may share in eternal life. This mystery - which is “a truth that transcends all human interpretation” - is explored by everyone who humbled himself with sincerity of heart before the naked crucified, and for whom the Savior’s death was a source of new life.

The topic of the cross took an important place in the writings of the New Testament, especially in the letters of Saint Paul, and it revolves around two important points: the first is that the death of Christ on the cross is an event that actually took place in history, and the second is that this event is the life of the world. The first verse that catches us, in our context, is what the Apostle said in his first letter to the Church of Corinth, which is: “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (2:2), which undoubtedly means that this saving event is not detained by the past. Rather, his action continues in history, and subsequently indicates what the Messenger hopes to see in this emerging community, which is that he believes in accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, and this means obeying the Word of God in its daily life. This is because the good news with which the Chosen Vessel has impregnated them cannot be satisfied with words alone, but rather through complete conversion to God and the crucification of every harmful desire in order to imagine the victorious Christ in those who believe in Him. In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle cites a wonderful testimony that helps us to better understand the meaning with which we opened the speech here. He says: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Whatever I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me” (2:20). Of course, Paul does not speak as people speak, nor does he live as the world lives. He understood the secret, and his life was the best expression of his realization. This is because he believed that Christ loved him with a personal, unparalleled love. He meant to say here: If there were no human being in the world... Other than Him, the only Son of God would have come and given Himself up for Him. Christ died for him and he cannot be neutral in the face of this terrible event. If he says that he was crucified “with Christ,” he is, without a doubt, a believer, meaning that Christ (Paul) carried him with him on his cross. This acquaintance indicates that the Messenger accepted the salvation that Christ achieved in the world, and consequently confirms that this “crazy love,” which is the source of a new life and is accepted every day, has become his entire life. Being crucified with Christ does not mean that we have our own crosses as individuals separate from Him, but rather that we believe that Jesus took us with him on his same cross and eliminated every sin in us and in the world and raised us with him to a new life.

Whoever has not tasted the fruit of the victory of the Cross of Christ in his life, “sin, salvation, or redemption” cannot have meaning for him. Anyone who considers that there is no value to life without enjoying the pleasures of this world, which is “that cold, abstract field,” as Father Leif Gelleh describes it, falls into sin. It is true that the world has a tempting shine, and if it were not for it, no one would have fallen for its deception. However, the love that believers taste in their hearts is stronger and brighter, and its ship that carries them to the harbor of salvation is the cross. I do not want my reader to understand that the Lord Jesus is conqueror (how can He who was crucified out of love for humanity be conqueror?), and He seeks people against their will. His greatness, in any case, is that his selfless love is a call that, if accepted, has the full power to annihilate the persistence of those who are immersed in their sins and to renew them. To live, it is enough for a person to accept, without despair, to be overcome by the Lord’s amazing love. This is because the One who descended to the bottom of Hell and conquered death through his death is able - if we wish - to “save us from every fall and sorrow,” and consequently, to remove every contradiction between his love for us and our failure to obey his love.

It is not surprising that you find in this world many temptations and considerations that contradict the essence of the truth and work against it. Rather, it is surprising that you find Christians drowning in the world and craving for what they think is joy and glory in it. It may be annoying to say that what makes the cross of Christ an event of judgment is that believers in God pant after the power of the world that has been nullified and seek glory that has faded and is emptied of its meaning. How is the crucifixion of Jesus the reality of our lives? This is the challenge of the one who (Jesus) obeyed his Father to the end. Christ died “for us,” and this means that life apart from Him has no value, and there is no value for rebellion and disobedience, because every rebellion was defeated by the light that broke out of the grave on the third day (see Paul’s conversion). Darkness cannot resist light, nor can sin resist righteousness, nor can hatred resist love... and every rebellion is stupidity, regardless of its interpretation. However, the righteous are confident that truth prevails no matter how many enemies it has, and that He is able, at all times, to establish His kingdom in obedience to history. The death of the Savior summed up human history, and the judgment of the world seemed a certain victory and occurred entirely at that moment when the world thought that the Son of God had died defeated. No, number is nothing, and the power of the world is nothing: beauty, reason, money, power..., and everything that is thought to be something has become nothing, because Jesus “the power and wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24) exposed the world, overturned its concepts, and made the world’s standards worthless. And He alone became all and in all.

Christ is victorious in his loved ones, this is his secret. He did not only conquer his death on the cross, but death, and this means that through his death he conquered the death of all of us and every inaction and sin in us and in the world... and this victory is the secret of the new existence, and that is that every light and virtue, in every generation, became possible through him. Christ, who condescended to reveal His strength and beauty in the “openness and ugliness,” enabled us, who were nothing before His incarnation and crucifixion, to become through Him and those whom we thought to be non-existent and nothing, present and in everything.

The world was drowning in the mire of sin when the Son of God came and loved us to the end and gave us the path to victory and the guarantee of true life. This is the secret that “appeared” and became available to every person in the world to reveal it and live.

From my parish bulletin 2000