In exaltationem venerandae crucis

On the Exaltation of the Venerable Cross. Every change from worse to better produces the greatest joy and gladness for the human race. For human nature, desiring better things, is always eager to attain what is superior. Thus, for sailors, the transition from storm to fair weather and calm is sweet; for travelers, rest after toil is sweet; for the sorrowful, the shift from dejection to joy is sweet; for the sick, recovery from weakness to health and strength is sweeter; for enemies, the establishment of friendship and peace after enmity is sweet; and the change from darkness and night to day is sweeter. And every action, so to speak, has a sweeter effect when it brings benefit to those who desire it. Thus we see that the enjoyment given to us by God provides us with gladness through change. For grain is sweet in itself, but when cast into the earth with labor and multiplied, it becomes sweeter, taken with all joy as an abundance of food. For a single seed is thrown into uncertainty. Likewise, the nature of the vine provides us with sweeter refreshment, offering the drink from the wood through the transformation of the fruit. For the tendrils and leaves have a very sharp and astringent effect, so that it is not possible for the mouth to touch them for tasting.

A grape cluster, together with its tendrils and leaves, growing on a single vine, has such a sweet sensation that it sweetens the state of bitter and painful things, offering its own fruit for joy in drinking. Likewise, the trunk of the olive tree has an evergreen leaf, and the tree is always young; the fruit is borne in season, not appearing from the tree in the same way for all, but displaying a certain unique nature within itself. For first it puts forth a flower, very fine as dust, and within this the fruit itself sprouts like a millet seed; and resembling a grape cluster, it displays an innumerable multitude, but as it advances to growth, it sheds the multitude as useless, and it is bitter when tasted until the end, but insipid when taken by hand; and by this it becomes a guardian of its own richness, and by the change of bitterness it provides such a sweet taste that it is introduced as a seasoning for every delicacy and becomes a mixture for every feast for the life of men. And thus every nature of plants and seeds, by the change of their fruits, provides joy to all. Since, then, the change from more difficult things to better ones grants such enjoyment, come, let us pass on to things more honorable than these; let us see how many good things the cross of Christ has procured for us, having wrought such a change of good things through its own operation. For even if the Lord's cross is heard as painful and gloomy, yet it is full of joy and filled with brightness, having become the cause not of passion, but of impassibility.

If it is a scandal to the Jews when named, and folly to the Gentiles when proclaimed, yet to us who believe it is salvation when remembered. For even if in church, when the cross is read aloud and the passion through the cross is recalled, the people who believe in the cross groan, uttering a pitiful cry and murmur, it is not because of the cross, but because of those who crucified and disbelieved. For the cross is the salvation of the Church, the cross is the boast of those who have hoped in it, the cross is what delivered us from the evils that preceded and is the firstfruits of the goods that have come to us, the cross is the reconciliation of enemies to God and the turning of sinners to Christ. Through the cross we were delivered from enmity, and through the cross we were joined in friendship with God; through the cross we were freed from the tyranny of the devil, and through the cross we were delivered from death and destruction. For this reason the people, when first hearing about the cross, murmured, but then, when hearing about the resurrection, changed their murmur into joy, uttering the glory with a clear voice. The cross transformed human nature into angelic rank, showing it alien to every corruptible action and deeming it worthy to dwell in incorruptible life.

No longer did he address them as men, but also as gods, saying: "I said, you are gods, and all sons of the Most High." No longer did he name them slaves, but friends and brothers, saying, "I will announce your name to my brothers." Do you see what a transformation the cross has wrought? That you may learn more precisely the power of the cross, consider what was before the cross, and what after the cross, and you will find the energy of the cross. Before the cross, the Son was not known; today, with the cross proclaimed, the Son is named, and the Father is known through the Son. Before the cross, the devil was worshipped; now, with the cross proclaimed, the devil has fallen, and demons are put to flight. Before the cross, we devoted ourselves to fornications and debaucheries; but now, with the cross proclaimed, not only have we abstained from fornication, but we have also despised marriage, and having accepted virginity, which we did not know, we guard it as our own. The cross was not proclaimed, and the devil gathered the Jews against Christ; today the cross is proclaimed, and the apostles bring the Jews through faith. The cross was not proclaimed, and we were held by death; now the cross is proclaimed, and we have despised death as if it did not exist, and we have yearned for eternal life. The cross was not proclaimed, and we were strangers to paradise; but when the cross appeared, a thief was immediately deemed worthy of paradise. O the great power of the cross, what a transformation it has wrought for the human race! From such darkness it transferred us to boundless light, from death it recalled us to eternal life, from corruption it renewed us to incorruption.

No longer are the eyes of the heart covered by the darkness of ignorance, but through the cross they are illumined by the light of knowledge. No longer are the ears of the deaf stopped up by unbelief; for the deaf heard the word of the Lord, and the blind recovered their sight to see the glory of God. These are the achievements of the cross, these are the gifts given to us through the cross. For what good has not been given to us from the cross? What blessing has not been accomplished for us through the cross? Through the cross we were taught to be pious, and we came to know the power of the divine nature. Through the cross we are instructed in the justice of God, and we pursue the virtue of temperance. Through the cross we come to know one another, and those far off were united with Christ, and we were deemed worthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Through the cross we learned the power of love, and we do not refuse to die for one another. Through the cross we have despised all things in the world, and we have considered them as nothing, longing for future goods and striving for invisible things as if they were seen. The cross is proclaimed, and faith in God is confessed, and truth is established throughout the whole world. The cross is proclaimed, and martyrs are revealed, and the confession of Christ is strengthened. The cross is proclaimed, and the resurrection is revealed, and life has been made manifest, and the kingdom of heaven is entrusted, and the unbelieving believe in the cross, and those who

the cross, devising it against life. The cross has become the provider of all these things for us, and through the cross we have been taught to sing. What, then, is more precious than the cross? What is more beneficial than this to our souls? Let us not, therefore, be ashamed to name the cross, but let us confess it with all frankness, through which we have been recalled to salvation and are conveyed to eternal life. Do you see how great an economy this cross has wrought for the world? It has transformed its lawless affairs and altered its godless doctrines; it no longer abides by diabolical laws, nor does it revolve around deadly ordinances. For God has sojourned among us, and has cut out the passions of frenzy, has legislated his own laws, and has decreed what is beneficial and advantageous. He has established doctrines of temperance and has cut out voluptuousness; he has set boundaries of holiness and has fitted a law of chastity, and has removed lawless fornication out of the way. He has legislated the canons of continence and has overturned the dominions of pleasures. With a divine decree he has pulled down the instruments of desires and has diminished every sin engendered through pleasure. For since the beginning of fornication is the invention of idols, and their discovery is the corruption of life, for this reason he has cut out the root of lawlessness, in order to stop all the streams of impiety.

And it abolished the abominable cults of idolatry, destroyed the practices of lawlessness, rendered useless the divisions of Bacchic transgression, and dimmed the fabrications and embellishments of impiety; it cut off the injustices of deceit and blocked the streams of destruction; it purified souls by uprooting the thorns of impiety, and brought forth, like a grain of wheat, the seeds of piety, so that it might show souls bearing fruits of righteousness; it opened the sluices of spiritual grain-giving and filled the rational storehouses with the divine products of heavenly wisdom; it filled the faithful with the sanctification of the Spirit, and each became a vessel of divine holiness and a river of godly seemliness. The cross has provided us with the possession of all these things, and we enjoy all such great goods through the cross. We have received the knowledge of all these things through the cross, and we have been taught all these things through it. But that you may learn the power of the cross and how great the energy of the cross is, observe what has happened on the cross, and you will find works of divine power accomplished through it. A cross is erected against life, and life for the world is devised through the cross unto death, and death is shown dead through it; a cross is spread against the truth, and the world is filled with truth through the cross; a cross is stretched out against the Lord, and the Lord, stretching out his hands through it, has drawn all things to himself. Christ hangs on the cross, and the devil is dead.

Christ is stretched out on the cross, and a sign of salvation has been given to the world. Christ is nailed to the cross, and every soul has been freed from bonds. Christ is fixed upon the cross, and the whole creation has been liberated from the corruption of slavery. Christ has reposed on the cross, and a new wonder has been displayed to the world: for the light of the sun is darkened. The darkness is stored up as a symbol for the unbelievers on the day of judgment, while for the believers the light of day is transformed from darkness. And a certain prophetic oracle proclaims this, saying: "And on that day," says the Lord, "the sun will set at noon, and the light will be darkened in the day, and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into dirges." Do you see, beloved, how great a mystery the prophetic oracle contains? For here the matters of both are intimated: I mean those of the Jews under the law, and those of the nations outside the law who practice lawlessness. For the former, according to

Those who celebrate the law will mourn after completing their feasts, and instead of songs they will make lamentation concerning Jerusalem. For Jerusalem will no longer have its rites, nor will a feast be celebrated in it, since all things have come to an end after Christ’s advent, his passion, and his economy. Therefore he says: I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into dirges; for you are deprived of your legal observances and delivered into slavery to every nation, because you did not believe in the divine and paradoxical proclamation of the cross. And the nations, confessing their sins, will also mourn a mourning that brings blessedness. For blessed, it says, are those who mourn, because they will be comforted. They will mourn over their vain feasts and lawless songs with which they celebrated the unclean demons. For see today how a pagan, once celebrating idols, after repenting turns the feast into mourning, repenting of what he did wrong, and says in lamentation that prophetic saying: We have gone astray in our shame, and our sins have covered us, because we have been filled with our impiety. We have recognized the injustices of our fathers.

Thus then, let us also, having rightly lamented and mourned over the evils previously recorded for us, entwine ourselves with the cross, placing our hopes in the cross, so that, having been disciplined through the cross and having stretched our mind toward heaven, having drawn near to Christ our Savior, we may be deemed worthy to be near God in the kingdom of heaven, in Christ our Lord Himself, to whom are the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.