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The Dynamism of the Cross

Monday, September 25, 2006 Written by Hegomen Pishoy Kamel Have you experienced the dynamism (literally, the vigorous, active energy) of the Cross in our lives? A meditation for the Feast of the Cross. Introduction The Cross is not a temptation or a calamity that might attack a person. Rather, it is the daily experience of fellowship with the crucified Jesus. It is the weapon with which we can conquer the world, and our song of victory over our ego and the desires of the body. For every individual - the priest, the youth, the college student, the employee, the husband, the wife - the Cross is central to all our dealings with God. The Cross is at the center of our daily struggles with the world, with people, with even those we meet on the street. The Cross is our weapon in spiritual warfare. It is the source of our love and our service to everyone. It is the source of an amazing comfort in troubles. It is the way to freedom, joy, and submission to the Lord. Whoever loses his cross, loses his Christianity, and with it loses his experience with the Father, for Golgotha had been a meeting place for man to meet with God. On Golgotha, man found love, forgiveness, overcoming injustice, overcoming the world, submission of his will, and the joy of the Son. The Cross is my life; there is no life except through the Cross. The Cross and I are in a continuous dynamism (i.e., a vigorously active, forceful energy). On the Cross, I crucify myself, and through it, I crucify the world. From the Cross I discover God's love to me. Part I: The Cross is the Weapon of Purity Purity is the Secret of Power When impurity defiles a person's life, the body turns into a flaming furnace that sets on fire all his desires, until the person burns himself by those desires, until his power is consumed, and until he loses his sight forever. This is how Samson's power came to an end. The eye that desired Delilah kindled a fire of lust in his heart until he was burned by it and lost his power, and, until at last, his eyes were gouged and he fell from his dominion (2 Pet. 2:10) and used as ox. The Light of the Body is the Eye (Matt. 6:22) If the eye is kindled by the fire of lust, it loses its sight and the whole body loses it light. And then all becomes dark. It is only the eye that is able to make my whole life dark, away from the light of Christ. The eye turns all the senses of the body to work in darkness, and fills the heart with darkness, until it thus turns the body into an obscure tomb. The Eye is the Camera of the Person Through the eye, the pictures are imprinted in the mind, like film in a camera, and from this "film" one can print thousands of pictures. That is why the eye is of great importance, because through it, pictures can be taken for the devil's benefit. The devil can imprint thousands of images and expose them to me at any time, exciting the desires of the body, causing troubles and suffering so that my life is transformed into a living hell, where the mind and the imagination become a center for these images to be stored and later exposed at any time, even after repentance and confession.

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My God, You showed me where to start, when You said, "It is better for you to pluck out your eye..." O, my God, how can I regain the light of my body and the sight of my eyes that I have lost? Shall I shut my eye and pluck it? Discernment Between the Powers A person has three important powers: that of the sight, thought, and heart. These are the most influential powers in our lives. In order to regain the purity of the eye (sight), we must free the heart and thought from the sight. This can only be done through the power of our Lord's Cross, which is the weapon of conquest. For example, if the eye beholds a certain sight, the thought can separate and think only of God at that moment. The Cross is the power that helps us discern between what we see and what we think. So, even if our eyes see things that can cause us to stumble, the thought can be liberated from the sight, which means it will be free and thinking only of God. Thus, if we keep the power of the thought always fixed on God, and the power of the heart always busy with His love, then the eye can become free and illuminate us by seeing the light of God in all creation. During the Sixth Hour of the Holy Agpeya, the Church expresses the action of lifting our hearts and thoughts to God by focusing our sight on the Cross. As we commemorate the Lord's crucifixion, we pray, "By the nails with which You were nailed, deliver our minds from foolishness to the remembrance of Your heavenly laws according to Your tender mercies." This prayer precisely expresses the separation between worldly desires and delivering the mind from foolishness through the Cross by teaching us to: (a) nail the thought - we keep our eyes pure from foolish sights to drive away sexual pleasures from the eye; and (b) raise the thought we attach our thoughts to God by remembering His heavenly laws. The Crucified Eye The eye always desires to be satisfied by looking. David the Prophet looked and desired; Adam found the Tree "pleasant to the eyes, good for food." (Gen. 3:6) Also, "whoever looks, desires." (Matt. 5:28) The sons of God are given pleasant and beautiful sights to satisfy the eye, such as the Holy Cross. We should not just look at it casually, but rather, contemplate upon it, meditate on it, and be satisfied by it. The sight of Jesus hanging from the Cross, the sight of His wounds, the sight of His scourges, the sight of the nails, the sight of spitting on His holy face, the sight of His thirsty mouth, the sight of His outstretched arms, the sight of His bent head. These are all blessed sights that the eye should be accustomed to seeing; they are the sights that will truly satisfy the eye. What our Lord sees with His sight is different from what we see: He carries me, and He sees me, the lost sheep. He sees the sight of the Father, embracing me. He sees my door, as He knocks and waits for me to open. He sees the sinner woman, her tears falling on His feet. These are pleasant and satisfying sights. Likewise, the icon of the Holy Virgin Mary is satisfying to our sight, and pleasing to our eye, for her purity and beauty are uplifting. Thus, when the eye focuses on the sights that truly satisfy, it begins to reject the sights of the world, because nothing will satisfy the eye except for divine sights. The crucified eye is a controlled eye and should be circumcised to God. The eye, which works like a camera, should store the pleasant sights of the Cross, and practice sanctity and purity, until we actually sleep peacefully, in the stream of these pleasant sights, seeing only pure sights in our mind's eye. The Crucified Eye is a Plucked Eye "Plucking the eye" is a commandment from the Gospel; it is self-denial and sacrifice, the best strength that the Cross gives to us. Abraham took his only son (his only eye) and arose to sacrifice him with an internal joy, considering that his faith and obedience to God were of greater benefit than the loss of his son. Abraham's honesty in sacrificing Isaac, his joy, love, and obedience gave us a preview of the Lord's day - the day of His crucifixion, when the world saw Christ slaughtered as the only Son who returned alive.

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If you are serious in resisting evil sights to the point of crucifying the eye (that is, plucking the eye as the Gospel says), God will see your honesty and will give you a chaste and pure eye the moment you raise the knife toward it to sacrifice it. Just as He did not allow Abraham to actually harm Isaac, so will He give you a pure eye the moment you make the step toward sacrifice. The plucking of the eye, by the power of the Cross (self-denial and sacrifice) is a positive, victorious power. It is a power free of suppression and filled with joy, compatible with the infinite might of God and the power of salvation in the Cross of our Lord. The Eye of Christ It is the eye of a person who is freed by the Cross from any foolish thought. It is the fruit of the might of the Cross, always fixed on Godly things. It sees God in everything and in all His creation. It sees God in the heart of a sinner women, in the heart of the publican beating his chest, in the heart of the thief on the cross. God will be in the center of the eye's movement, because it is an eye consecrated and sealed by God through the Holy Myroun. Part II: The Cross of Pleasure So what forces us not to "take a look" (at things that please the eye in the worldly sense)? It is when we realize that the eye is the lamp of the body, and through its waywardness, we can convert the whole body into a fiery hell, in which human life ends! The Motive is Temporary Pleasure "...he looked to lust after..." (Matt. 5:28) Pleasure is the reason we form the different habits that enslave us. Consider the examples of pleasure: sexual pleasure, pleasure of food, pleasure of sleep, laziness... Bodily pleasure kills our persistence, spiritual struggle, and reading of the Bible. Bodily pleasure gives us the motive to have the "evil look" and look for pleasure in cheap magazines, tabloids, gossip, television, and empty books that flood the market nowadays. Bodily pleasure leads to frivolity of the mind for the entire day, so that we watch TV or chatter without any aim or purpose all day long. It causes a person to be slow in his spiritual thought, lazy, and insensitive, like a feather submerged in mud. The chaste soul is like a soft, delicate feather that can easily fly because of its lightness. Through prayer and spiritual meditation, the chaste soul flies like a feather high above base, worldly matters. Yet if this feather is spoiled with bodily pleasures, it becomes weighed down with mud and dirt. It can no longer fly upward, but on the contrary, will constantly descend downward. Pleasure is a Hook in the Hand of the Wicked Through pleasure, the enemy makes us fall into sin (from the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil). So if "the hook" of pleasure catches the eye, tongue or ear, it will completely attract the person to sin. This pleasure must be crucified on the Cross. Fixing our eyes on the wounds of the Lord curbs the desire for sexual pleasure. Meditating on the Lord's thirst on the Cross will give meaning to our fasting, as fasting is not merely abstinence from food, but it is also crucifying the gluttonous pleasure of food. Meditating on the Lord's nakedness on the Cross is enough to crucify our pleasure for fancy clothes or obsession with our appearance, which can burn all creation by the flame of desire. Thus, we will feel the dynamic power of the Cross in our lives, where it will become a practical matter of fact on which we will crucify every bodily and worldly pleasure every day, and at any time. On the other hand, any worldly desire presents to us a way in which we can remember the Cross and its effect in our lives. The Cross becomes our life. We'll live in it and be affected by it throughout our days. It will be our own Cross, which we will carry and followed the crucified One. The Pleasure of the Cross

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Throughout all generations, the Cross has been our pleasant song, desirable to the eye, and delightful to the ear. The Blood and the Body of the crucified Christ became the tastiest food to the Christian, along with the Word of God, which is sweeter than honey. If a person is trained to taste the sweetness of the Word of God and the Cross, then he will soon despise every worldly pleasure of the body. Lack of spirituality and a strong thirst for sexual and worldly pleasures (such as materialism, clothing, food, etc.) is undoubtedly caused by a lack of learning and tasting what spiritual pleasure actually is. Let us go back to our Father's House and eat the fatted calf, and enjoy being embraced in His bosom. Let us leave the pleasure of the pods of the swine, the adulterers and adulteresses (i.e., the love of the world). (Luke 15) Here, we confront a spiritual item from St. Augustine's contemplations. He had been indulging in his bodily lusts when he came back to Christ and discovered true pleasure - that is, true pleasure in Christ. During a conversation with his mother, St. Monica, he said, "We sat down talking together in great pleasure, yearning for those heavenly springs that flood with life... all the worldly pleasures, with their most inviting and tempting offers, become insignificant trifles before our eyes, until they become so small that they cannot be compared to the pleasure of God, or even mentioned in comparison to the joy of God. We were soaring with a flaming pleasure toward God, longing to arrive at the infinite pleasure, where You sat, O Lord, feeding the righteous from the Food of Truth forever." One of the saints said that worldly pleasures are dirtier than the filth of animals when we try to compare them to spiritual pleasures, the pleasure we derive from meditating upon the Cross. Part III: The Cross of Thoughts The human mind is the center of unlimited imagination, created mainly to float in the infinite love of God expressed in the Cross. However, man has satisfied the mind with a different type of imagination, filling his life with distractions. Nothing can save him from these distractions except the One who descended to Hades through the Cross. These imaginations mainly have specific purposes, such as: + When the heart is filled with hatred, the imagination is filled with unlimited thoughts of anger, evil surmising, and wishing disaster upon those we hate. + When the heart follows pride, the imagination plunges into thoughts of vanity, judging others, and likening ourselves to saints. + When the heart cares about the ego, the imagination turns to fear that engulfs the soul: fear of the future, fear of trouble, fear of what people think, and paranoia that we are surrounded by people plotting against us. + When the heart searches for pleasure, and keeps this pleasure to itself, the person's entire life will be filled with sexual thoughts, and thus, his life becomes a burning hell. In our struggle to control our thoughts and imagination, we will fail in our struggle and will not find any help unless we seek it through the Cross, which is the only refuge for struggling souls. + In the Cross, hatred melts, and love and forgiveness will replace it. + In the Cross, pride diminishes, and the meekness of the Beloved who did not open His mouth will replace all pride. + In the Cross, fear will disappear and be replaced by full submission.

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+ In the Cross, sexual frivolity decreases and we move up to heavenly thoughts. Meditating on the Cross alone inflames our hearts with the fire of Divine Love, until the love of God is poured into our hearts from the Cross. There, we will be united with Christ, where we will live in forgiveness, meekness, and complete trust in the Lord during times of tribulation. Thus, the Cross becomes a continuous, constant experience with the Crucified Lord, all day long, where our thoughts and imagination float in the love of God. That love is expressed in the Cross, and all of our thoughts will abide - and find perfect rest - there, The Cross of Psychological Troubles The mind is a center of fear, psychological anxiety, and worrying about the future. These psychological troubles deprive us from calmness and steadiness. Psychological troubles thus cause frivolity of the thought, sight, and heart. As the Holy Bible says, "There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord." (Isa. 48:22). To the children of God, however, our Lord Jesus gave us true peace, not as the world gives, for the heart that is full of peace can steadily reach toward God. Have you Committed your Life to God? Amidst the tribulations of the world, our struggle, the annoyance of others toward us, the responsibilities of life, and worrying about the future, how can you gain psychological peace? To answer this question, we should ask ourselves why we cannot submit ourselves to God after He bought us with His Son�s Blood? Why can we not commit our lives to Him? That is why the Lord says, Your life is in My possession. I bought it with My blood. "Do not be afraid... How is it that you have such little faith? Do not care about tomorrow." Even your sins, I will wash away with My Blood. Look at the Cross "Into Your hands, I commit My Spirit." This was the last teaching that the Lord uttered on the Cross. The Cross was not man's doing, but rather a divine work completed by the Lord. The Cross in its outer appearance was an expression of the world's injustice; the Lord was a victim in the hands of rulers who hand hardened hearts. But from an inner appearance, the Cross is complete joy, love, and submission to the Father for the salvation of the world. "Who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame." (Heb. 12:2) "Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously." (I Pet. 2:23) Crucifying the Ego "Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me." (Mark 8:34) The dynamic motion of the Cross is an internal motion. Its first aim is to crucify the ego. The ego is the center where pleasure, thoughts, materialism, dignity, judgment, and cares of the world and worldly matters move around. The Cross is the only way to crucify the ego. Looking at Jesus crucified removes from us the pleasure of the ego and its cares. Looking at Jesus naked on the Cross removes from us the desire for materialism. Looking at Jesus despised on the Cross removes from us our pride and judgment of others. Looking at the nails that the Lord was nailed with lifts our thoughts from the frivolity of this world to the remembrance of His heavenly laws and commandments. The Dynamism of the Cross in my Life Thus, in daily experiences, at every moment, the Cross becomes the center of our dealings with God. Whoever loses his cross, loses his way to God, and whoever loses his cross in life becomes cold, lukewarm, or has no dealing with God. The Cross, then, is my Life. On it, I crucify myself and the world. From it flows fountains of spiritual pleasure, holy sight, divine love, and pure thoughts. The Cross is the song of my triumph, and of submitting my life to

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the One who deserves my commitment. I see Him, and relate with Him at work, at school, in my studies, with my friends, with those who treat me badly, in my prayers, and while I sleep. The Cross becomes my entire life. Glory be to God forever. Amen. Visit http://www.coptichymns.net/ for more articles and the largest library of Coptic hymns on the Internet!

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