Some non-Christians wonder why we honor the cross. For them, the cross is a symbol of suffering, death, and shame. The Bible says that anyone who is hung on a cross is cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:23). They add, if someone kills someone dear to us, should we honor the instrument with which he was killed?
The Church has faced this problem since the beginning. Saint Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1:32).
As for the Evangelist John, the cross was no longer just pain and humiliation, but became a symbol of God’s glory. Christ describes his ascension on the cross as elevation, glory, and victory over sin and death, and through the cross he will raise humanity to his Father: “But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit… And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. This he said, signifying by what kind of death he would die” (John 12:24-33).
The Church’s veneration of the cross is not only because “the body of Christ sanctified the wood of the cross” - as St. John of Damascus put it - but because with the death of Christ on the cross the process of salvation began and the cross became a symbol of salvation. The death of Christ on the cross means the death of the old world and his resurrection and the beginning of the age of new transformation. Through the cross reconciliation between man and God took place: “Having abolished in his flesh the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man from the twain, thus making peace; and that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, having killed the enmity thereby” (Ephesians 2:15-16).
In the Book of Revelation there is a union between the martyrs and Christ: “Their bodies will be in the street of that great city, which in spirit is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Revelation 11:8). This is what Christ asks of all his beloved: “Whoever desires to come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The cross that the Christian carries is a sign of his abandonment of sin, and at the same time the cross is a sign of glory and honor for him: “If anyone serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also; and if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (John 12:26).
The Church has expressed the importance of the cross in its life and the life of all believers. The cross has become the source of eternal life, the glory of the martyrs, and a port of salvation. By it, Satan was shaken and sin was destroyed. In the Vespers Prayer of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, we read: “Rejoice, O life-bearing cross, the gate of paradise, the steadfastness of the faithful, and the wall of the Church, by which corruption has vanished and been nullified, the power of death has been swallowed up, and we have ascended from earth to heaven. You are the invincible weapon and the resister of demons, since you are the glory of the martyrs and the righteous… and the port of salvation, granting the world great mercy.”
From my parish bulletin 1995