In his message for the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, Metropolitan Nicolae of the Americas contemplates the profoundness of the Savior’s call: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34).
The Romanian Metropolitan notes that this command is a profound call that stirs our being, especially at the significant beginning of the new ecclesiastical year.
“It is a call addressed to our freedom to follow Him in whose image we were created, the One who came to restore this image,” said Metropolitan Nicolae.
“Being in the image of God, even though darkened by sin, as the Fathers say, man hears this call and feels that the One who speaks is indeed the Archetype. It is a call to return to God, a call that disturbs our very being, for it awakens within us our deep longing for the absolute, for perfection.”
The Metropolitan explains that Christ, being true God and true man, offers Himself as the transformative model for this return in several stages:
“First, the denial of oneself, of the ego that isolates us from God and others, the renunciation of what we believe belongs to us and cannot be left behind. But Christ Himself, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Philippians 2:6-7).”
“Next, the taking up of the cross, the acceptance of one’s own existence with its gifts and weaknesses. Each of us acknowledges the qualities God has endowed us, but we also measure our weaknesses. Taking up the cross means the struggle to cultivate the gift and diminish the weakness.”
“And finally, following Christ, walking the path He has opened, accepting divine sonship and the human brotherhood that comes with it. Christ’s imperative call changes our lives and gives them a meaning marked by eternity, fulfilling our humanity in Christ, the God-man.”
At the same time, at the start of the new ecclesiastical year, the hierarch offers his wishes for peace and joy, with pastoral fulfilment, to all the priests and faithful of the Metropolis.
Source: basilica.ro / Photo: mitropolia.us
