Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

The Cross - The Road of Peace!

Very Reverend Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org

(Third Sunday of the Great Fast: Adoration of the Holy Cross)

The Third Prayer read by the Orthodox priest at the celebration of Matins has this invocation in it: "Guide our steps along the road of peace". One of the most profound of human desires is to be at peace. Yet it is also an aim which seems to escape many. Certainly humanity as a whole is continually beset by the opposite of peace: more often than not we find ourselves at war. We are at war with each other, at war with God, at war with our own selves.

Perhaps it would be helpful for us to know what we are speaking about when we talk of peace. Is peace simply the absence of strife or conflict? Or is it something more? Is it, perhaps, the presence of some stable haven of tranquillity in the midst of the hustle and bustle of daily living? Is it a quiet resting upon the power and wisdom of a God who is unchanging in His constant love and provision for us?

We are getting closer to the mark when we speak of the latter. If the absence of strife or conflict were all that there was to peace, then we would have to say that those who get drunk or drugged to escape the interior and exterior pressures of life are on the right track. Obviously that would be a great mistake. When it is a choice between the experience of conflict and the loss of one's senses due to alcohol or drugs, we would have to say that conflict is preferable. The peace achieved by escapism is only a deferral of conflict - it is a false peace that leads finally to despair.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews offers us real peace today when he talks about our "great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God... not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:14,15). True peace is to walk this world in harmony with Him - following Him, returning to Him again each time that we stray. We can do this with confidence in His acceptance of us for He sympathizes with our weaknesses, because He has been tempted in every way that we are. Yet He did not sin. He overcame every obstacle and temptation through the Cross. He did this for us.

This is a great and joyous mystery that our faith offers us: peace through the Cross of Christ - through faith in the Cross, by which our sins have been forever erased, and through imitation of the One who suffered upon it. Peace is also the acceptance of temporary pain and discomfort with a view to the ultimate victory over greed, lust, hatred, fear, and all the other negative passions that strive to master us. Moses chose to suffer with the people of Israel rather than live in comfort as a prince of Egypt. Our Lord chose the Cross rather than make peace with the false prince of this world, Satan. This Lent let us also choose the path of suffering with Jesus, so that we might know His lasting peace

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