St Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
161 N. Murphy Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Afterfeast of Exaltation of the Cross

Afterfeast of the Exaltation of the Cross

This Sunday marks the Sunday after the exaltation of the Holy Cross. In the liturgical life of the church, this means a couple things. First, this Sunday has a special reading from the Gospel of Mark, which speaks about following Christ, with the words: "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Mark 8:34). This Sunday also marks the end of the readings of Matthew. Tomorrow morning in the lectionary of the Church we begin with the Gospel of Luke, and that will continue all the way up to the beginning of Great Lent. This is known as the Lukan jump, where we immediately begin the Gospel of Luke after the Sunday following the exaltation of the Cross.

            The Church in her wisdom sets the Gospels up in such a way that everything revolves around the great feast of Pascha. When we have that great feast of Pascha we immediately read the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is read during the 50 days following the resurrection of Christ. Anyone who read this Gospel knows that this Gospel is a very mystical one and is intended for Baptized Christians to read. This is why this is read after Pascha because most of the catechumens would have received baptism recently.

The Gospel of Matthew follows the great feast of Pentecost, which is the most instructional gospel on how Christ came and fulfilled all the teachings of the prophets. As I mentioned earlier the Gospel of Luke begins after the feast of the exaltation of the Cross and continues all the way until the beginning of great lent. The Gospel testifies of the great miracles and parables that Christ did, showing how he was truely the chosen of God. Finally during Great lent we read the Gospel of Mark, which is definitely the shortest Gospel. The Gospel of Mark is one that shows the true power of Christ, how he had dominion over the forces of darkness. This leads perfectly to the fesat of Pascha, where Christ knew exactly what he was doing and took upon the suffering of the Cross for our salvation.

            When we look in the life of the Church we can see how the Gospels play such an important role in our life. Every single day, a Gospel reading is set aside for us for us to read. These readings should definitely be a part of the daily life of a Christian. St John Chrystom says: "Now if we are willing to examine the Scriptures in this way, carefully and systematically, we shall be able to obtain our salvation. If we unceasingly  are preoccupied with them, we shall learn both correctness of doctrine and an upright way of life" (Hom 53 On John). These Gospel readings should not just be read as what happened in the historical life of the Church, rather these Gospels are read so that they could provide us what what is needed for salvation. In fact, as St. John Chrysostom also says,  the scriptures also provide us with spiritual defense against the evil ones: "This is the cause of all evils, the not knowing the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how are we to come off safe?" (Hom. IX  On Colossians).

            So I urge you, take the reading of scripture seriously. It is so crucial for our life to actually read the words of Christ which are for our salvation. It is equally crucial for us to also apply these words in our life. When Christ speaks of taking up our cross to follow him, we should take those words seriously. When Christ speaks of being prepared for the end times, as we hear in the other Gospel prescribed for today, we should take that seriously and prepare ourselves properly: "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect (Matthew 24:42-44). We need to listen to these words and to follow them, and in that we will be able to move forward in our spiritual lives and receive the reward of a righteous man.

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