The Cross of Jesus Christ: Tree of Life, Tree of Glory

Hymns from the Liturgy:

Vexilla Regis

The royal banners forward go, The cross shines forth in mystic glow/ where he, as man
who gave man breath Now bows beneath the yoke of death.

Fulfilled is all that David told In true prophetic song of old/ How God the nations' King should be, For God is reigning from the tree.

O tree of beauty, tree most fair, Ordained those holy limbs to bear/ Gone is thy shame, each crimson'd bough Proclaims the King of glory now.

Blessed Tree, whose chosen branches bore The wealth that did the world restore/ The
prince of humankind to pay, And spoil the spoiler of his prey

O Cross, our one reliance, hail! Still may thy power with us avail/ More good for
righteous souls to win, and save the sinner from his sin.

Pange Lingua

Faithful Cross! above all other, one and only noble tree! Non in foliage, none in blossom, None in fruit thy peer may be: Sweetest wood, and sweetest iron! Sweetest weight in hung on thee. Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory! Thy relaxing sinews bend; For awhile the ancient rigor That thy birth bestowed suspend; and the King of heav'nly beauty On thy bosom gently tend!

Scriptural references:
The teaching of Our Lord concerning His Cross:

'He that taketh not his Cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.' St Matthew 10.38-39

'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life will lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.' St Matthew 16.24-25

'Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me.' St Mark 8.34

'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross daily, and follow me' St Luke 9.23

'And whosoever doth not bear his Cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.'
St Luke 14.27

'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.' St John 3.14-15

The New Testament Epistles:

'Buried with Christ in Baptism, wherein ye also are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcison of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his Cross.' Colossians 2.14

'Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps... Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.' I St Peter 2.21-24

'Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.' Hebrews 12.1-2

The Cross in Holy Tradition:
'The four branches of the Cross, reaching to the four corners of the universe, fill the whole world. The Cross fills the universe and unites the whole of creation through the love of Jesus Christ' (St John of Damascus). The Cross is perceived to extend itself to all the cosmos, with the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ's love for all. The Cross is personified, addressed and venerated, for it is inseparable from Christ and His Passion. The Cross is also called 'Tree,' 'Pillar,' and the 'Ladder of Paradise,' the axis of God's own design which holds together and reunites the three components of the world, heaven, earth, and hell.

The Sign of the Cross serves as the fundamental Sign of the Christian Faith, the badge of the orthodox Christian, the supreme Symbol of the Christian profession. It serves to be the ultimate window to heaven, communicating its grace to all mankind. The Cross is the unmistakable token of all divine grace, the visible seal of the Holy Trinity and Incarnation. The Cross expresses immortality and victory over death; it is the centre of the world which escapes the corruptibility of this mortal life. The Body of the Crucified restores the original and perfect beauty of human nature, which through It is transfigured into glory, even in the midst of the Passion. The Cross holds the immolated Body of God - it offers to the world a suffering which has already transfigured creation to share in God's Life. The Cross is the ultimate Seal - the 'stamp of possession' - of the Christian, by which mankind is purchased for God. We are sealed with the Cross by Christ Himself - to be His own children and soldiers. This mystery especially occurs when we receive the the Baptismal Consignation and the character of Confirmation.

In the ancient Church, the Cross is designated the Life-Giving Cross, a title still used today in the Eastern Liturgy. Christ's death, which is supremely interpreted in terms of glorification and victory, is proclaimed by the Church as the Life-Giving Death. Christus Victor - the Victorious Christ is Christ Crucified, Christ reigning from the Cross. Christ is glorified on the Cross of Calvary, the Tree of Life. Our Lord refers to his impending death on the Cross as follows:

'Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him' (St John 13.31-32)

'Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee.' (St John 17.1) The Hour of Christ's Death is the Hour of His Glory, for it He was born (St John 12.27).

'In order that we might live, it was needful that God should incarnate Himself and be put to death' (St Gregory Nazianzus. The Incarnation took place so that the Eternal Word might be capable of death - Christ was born to die. 'It was that He might draw His ancient people with His one hand and the Gentiles with the other, and join both together in himself' (St Athanasius). 'Christ stretched out his arms upon the Cross in order to embrace the ends of the earth' (St Cyril of Jerusalem). By the Cross, Christ reconciles the whole fourfold universe, symbolised by the Cross, one horizontal act united Jews and pagans, the other vertical action united man and God. The Cross is the axis mundi, the centre of the world, which by its four sides unites heaven and hell and the whole world in space and time. Christ reigns from the centre of the world as its Crucified King (St Gregory of Nyssa).

The Cross is the work of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for Christ does not act alone, but with the Father and the Holy Ghost to save mankind. The Cross is 'the crucifying love of the Father, the crucified love of the Son, and the love of the Holy Ghost who triumphs by the wood of the Cross' (St Philaret of Moscow). The mystery of the Cross subsists in its apparent defeat, for by death Christ overthrows the power of death. The Cross forever reveals the deepest expression of the Mystery of Christ, of victory by defeat, glory by humiliation, life by death. The Cross becomes the royal insignia of Christ, his royal, priestly and prophetic banner, the Image which heralds his victory and his prerogative as the Redeemer of Man.

The Cross manifests the Power of God and the Wisdom of God, and is the truest Sign of God, who voluntarily wills to become Man and die in order to save his creation. The Cross enshrines the Love of God toward man in its fullness, the love of God which manifests itself in Redemption, in the economy of the gift of salvation. The Cross is offered to the Christian as the essential attribute, the fundamental characteristic that defines the Christian life and union with Our Lord. The entire sacramental system of the Church roots itself in the sacramental presence and efficacy of the Sign of the Cross, in orthodox Christian worship and prayer, and in Church history and experience, as well as in Christian art and architecture. The fruit of the Cross, the merit of Christ, is applied and appropriated to the Christian; one is incorporated into Christ by the Means of Grace, the Seven Sacraments of the Church, which convey the saving reality of Calvary.

The Use of the Cross:

The Cross is ever-present in the life of the orthodox catholic Christian, staying with us from Baptism to death. It is contained in and outside of our Churches, in our homes, sometimes in our schools, and on our persons. It confers upon us, as we trace it on our own bodies, the Life and Resurrection of Christ. Every Friday is a 'little Good Friday,' the day of the Passion, and a commemoration, through fasting, prayer and liturgy, of the Cross. Anciently, the Christians of the Primitive Churches focussed their entire lives on the Sign of the Cross - using it in public and private, always invoking its power and blessing. The Cross was the symbol by which Christians recognised each other. By the Cross literally carried on one's body, indicative of the grace and victory, the Life of Christ, carried in the soul, one's ontological status as a Son of God, a member of Christ in His Church, is identified. St Augustine notes that the Sign of the Cross is imprinted, marked upon one by God Himself, interiorly, when one is baptised, confirmed and ordained. The Cross marks the Christian with sacramental character; it places a permanent status or quality upon the soul, which distinguishes the Christian as God's own child.

The Sign of the Cross was literally placed on one's forehead as a public profession of faith; St Augustine also notes that one could tell a Christian from a pagan, in say, an amphitheatre, because the Christian wore the Cross as a sign on the forehead.

The late second century Church Father Tertullian writes: 'In all our dealings - when we go in or out, before dressing, before bathing, at the table, when we light our evening lamps, before going to bed, when we sit down to read, in every activity of daily life - we make the Sign of the Cross on our foreheads.' Or to quote St John Chrysostom in the fourth century: 'Through the Cross all things are fulfilled. Baptism is given through the Cross; the imposition of hands (Confirmation and Ordination) is done through the Cross. And whether we be travelling, at home or wherever, the Cross is our greatest good, the armour of salvation, the impenetrable shield against demons.'

The original representations of the Crucified Lord in the ancient Church of the first six centuries portray Our Lord as Christus Rex, the glorified King, alive, eyes open, holding Himself aloft on the Cross by His own power, vested in white clothing or in the vestments of the Christian sacerdos, Eucharistic Vestments. The ancient orthodox depiction was preserved more so in the Latin West than in the East: Christ, King of majesty, living, clothed, impassive, glorified, triumphant in His Cross. In this image, Christ looks upon all men with compassion and mercy, His all-seeing eyes still gazing upon the world. The Image of the Crucified is that of transfigured human nature, the flesh of the God-Man transfigured and made alive even in death. The later and more commonly-used image seen today, that of the humiliated Christ of suffering, naked, bloody, dead, the Christ of mortal human nature, first appeared in eleventh century Byzantium.

Above is an example of the Byzantine type, sober, minimalistic, limited to the essentials of the Crucifixion, with Our Lady and St John present. Christ is naked, with a white loin cloth. He leans to his right, with bowed head, dead. He retains majesty in his suffering, the dignity of His Divine Person. Even in death, He is incorruptible. It is the Image of the New Adam, the Incarnate God, who by His Blood redeems the human race. The most ancient form of the Crucifixion possesses eight points as does ours, that is, it includes the sign of inscription (INRI) and the foot-piece which receives Our Lord's nailed feet. Traditionally, the foot-piece rises upwards to Christ's right, symbolising the justification of the good and the damnation of the evil, as represented by the good and bad thief in the Gospel narrative. Christ extends His arms as in open space above - the openness of the Crucifixion portrays it as the cosmic, universal act of salvation, which frees the whole universe from evil, from the spirits of the air, demons. The two holy ones closest to Our Lord at Calvary are subdued, grim, restrained. The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Theotokos or Mother of God, appears on Our Lord's right. She appears here as 'Our Mother,' the spiritual Mother presented to St John the beloved disciple, who in turn represents the whole Catholic Church: 'Behold thy Mother.' Mary is given to us by the Crucified Christ as our Mother, the Woman of Genesis 3.15, now here in the new garden, next to the new Tree of Life. She is the Mother of the new human race, the New Eve, because she is the 'Mother of all the living' (Genesis 3.20). Mary is transformed into the Mother of mercy, the Mother of all Christians, the Mother of martyrs and saints, holding a palm of a bloodless martyrdom - and the prophecy of St Simeon, the old man in the temple at the Presentation of Christ, is fulfilled: 'A sword shall pierce your soul, that the thoughts of many hearts should be revealed.' (St Luke 2.35).

This is Our Lady's com-passion, her union with the Crucified Lord. She holds herself upright, standing, facing her Son, her attention concentrated on Christ. She contains her grief, controlling it with an indomitable stamina of faith. The Holy Virgin encourages St John, almost leading him, directing him, to meditate upon the mystery of the Cross and our salvation, the death of her Divine Son. St John expresses his own deep grief, sharing with Christ his own anguish and pain.

Our Lord, in a sense, transcends His own Cross with His glory; He seems to bear it up more than it bears Him. In serenity and peace, the King of creation sleeps, His arms outstretched in a gesture of offering and love. The water and blood of Christ are seen to flow from His right side, as according to the detail of St John 19, in which He was pierced through with a spear, and forthwith came both blood and water. These two represent the two Dominical Sacraments (St John Chrysostom), that of Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of New Birth and the Sacrament of Nourishment to eternal Life. We see the New Creation fashioned by the Creator who becomes Man and dies for man. The water of Christ, the Holy Ghost, becomes our possession in Holy Baptism, in which we are united to the death and resurrection of Christ by sacramental participation and adopted as the sons of God.

The Blood shed for our salvation is vouchsafed to us in the Eucharistic chalice, in the mystery of the Mass which re-presents the Sacrifice of the Cross and makes us partakers of Christ's total Person by means of the Blessed Sacrament. The Church also becomes by Christ's death the New Eve, the Bride of Christ, born from His pierced side, just as Eve was born from the side of Adam, whose rib was fashioned into the first woman. The primeval Adam-Eve creation was paralleled by the Church Fathers with the Christ-Church mystery. Just as Eve was taken from sleeping Adam's side, so was the Church taken from the side of Christ who slept in death (St Epiphanius). The One Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, prefigured by the seamless robe of Christ for which the soldiers gambled, gives birth and life to her children through the Sacraments, especially the preeminent ones of Baptism and Eucharist. This Holy Mother Church, the 'mother of the living' without which we cannot have God as our Father, ('You cannot have God as your Father without the Church as your Mother' - St Cyprian of Carthage), nourishes her children, us, by the Sacraments of grace: 'We are nourished by the double stream which the lance made to flow from thy side. From thy life-giving spring we come to draw the water of Baptism and the Blood of the Chalice.'

The Cross alone saves us from sin, a penalty of death alone makes sense of the pain and trial of life, its difficulty and pain, our own crosses. In the paradox of God, it is only by dying that we life, only by the Crucifixion can Resurrection occur.

'Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify'

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross - September 14th

The Holy Catholic Church, East and West, observes a Feast Day in commemoration of the Holy Cross on 14 September, the 'Exaltation,' which refers to the annual raising of the relic of the True Cross for the veneration of the faithful. In the fourth century, St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, discovered the True Cross on Golgotha outside Jerusalem. The True Cross was identified 1. because it was found with two other crosses (those of the thieves), 2. it bore the inscription INRI (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews), and 3. it caused numerous miracles. The feast was instituted 14 September 347 in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.