Moscow, April 4, 2016
“We must learn to carry the cross," His Holiness Patriarch Kirill stressed in his sermon on April 3. "And it is easy to do if we connect the carrying of the cross with our happiness. If, bearing the cross, we become stronger, wiser, maturer; if, carrying the cross, we appreciate every single day that the Lord gives us; if we begin to see people around us in a different way, to see a kind look and a kind word differently; if carrying of the cross enables us to see the depth of another person’s soul, then it means that we are growing—growing substantially and significantly, coming ever closer to the Heavenly Kingdom.”
“There are no extraneous or false words in the Holy Scriptures," the patriarch noted. "If the Lord says something, then it is true. If sorrows come to our life, even from our own mistakes and folly, we should accept them as a saving cross, the carrying of which fills our life with meaning and opens the gates of eternity. And, bowing down before the Cross of our Lord and Savior, let us look at this image from a different perspective. He is God, but He is also Man. He is on the Cross and He is experiencing the unbelievable suffering; and He is doing it not for Himself, but for our sake. And if God took on Himself the sufferings of the Cross so that we might obtain salvation, how important it is for us to learn how to carry our cross, to alleviate the life of another and to acquire salvation for ourselves. ‘Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship.’
This veneration is full of the deepest spiritual meaning, for in venerating His sufferings we witness to our faith in Christ Who through the Cross brought salvation to the entire human race.”
