Today, the Gospel reading is
about self-denial. We see throughout the whole world that the desire for wisdom
brings people to religion. Rarely, people remain fervent in their religion
without this idea of seeking wisdom. People have, of course, different reasons
for seeking wisdom, but, in the beginning, they all recognize the need for
wisdom in their lives. In a similar way,
we also need to recognize the need for God's wisdom in our own circumstances,
or our religion will mean very little.
In the Holy Scriptures, God gives
to us two very important sorts of wisdom, two metaphors, which, if we balance,
we will grow in the spiritual life and become nearer to God. The first of these metaphors, and the one
which is the most interesting (because it is the Sunday of the Holy and Life-Giving
Cross), is the metaphor of the tree. The image of the tree is very important in
our spiritual life, because it gives to us an illustration of the ideal of
human life, composite by nature, both rooted in the earth (that is in material
existence), and stretching out towards Heaven, aspiring to God. This we clearly
see in the first psalm: "[the righteous man] will be like a tree that is
planted by a stream of water, which will bear its fruit in due season, and its
leaves will not scatter." The tree in Holy Scripture is a place of
decision and revelation, since weighty things are decided under the boughs of
the tree, and God reveals Himself there.
For example, in the beginning, in paradise, our first parents Adam and
Eve decided to sin under the boughs of the Tree of Knowledge and near the Tree
of Life. Later, God visited the Patriarch Abraham under the Oak of Mamre, and
promised him that he would have a son. This prophecy was fulfilled after a year
in the birth of Isaac. Also, under this
same tree, God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham bargained with
God to save the people of those cities. Later, when Deborah was called by God
to judge Israel, she sat under a palm tree to judge the cases that the people
brought to her. Also, in the Book of Judges, kinds of trees become the characters
in the only fable in Holy Scripture-- the Fable of the Buckthorn and the Trees.
In the books of the prophets, the people of Israel was described as a fig tree,
and, finally, in the New Testament, Our Lord Jesus Christ tells the Apostle
Nathanael that He saw him under the fig tree-- a fact, which has great
significance to the Apostle. Naturally,
all these examples are fulfilled in the tree of the Cross of our Lord.
Therefore, the tree, or the
cross, is a symbol of suffering and temptation, and we should reflect upon the
various examples from Holy Scripture, so that we learn about the nature and
purpose of this aspect of our life.
First, a tree is a thing that enlightens and gives life, just like the
trees in Paradise. Second, through the tree (of suffering and temptation) God
promises us spiritual fruitfulness in a multitude of virtues, just as God
promised the birth of Isaac under the boughs of the Oak of Mamre, but He also
destroyed the Cities of the Plain, which are a symbol of our passions. In other
words, the Lord's ways in our lives are often unpleasant and painful. The tree
(a symbol of our suffering and temptation) are a reminder to us to accept the
judgment of God in the direction of our life, just as a tree became the place
where God's judgment was revealed through the Prophetess Deborah. Accepting the cross is all of these things:
enlightenment and healing, spiritual fruitfulness and the destruction of our
passions, and acceptance of the Lord's holy will.
The second metaphor is the
mountain. We can say that its wisdom is very different from the wisdom of the
tree, but it is complementary. Throughout God’s words to us in Holy Scripture
we find the mountain again and again. The mountain is Sinai, where God descends
to be among His people and give them His commandments. The mountain is Zion,
the holy place of Jerusalem itself, where God has chosen to dwell forever. As He
says in the Psalms, “Here is my resting place unto the ages of ages. Here I
will dwell, for I have desired it.” The mountain is Tabor, where the glory of
God is made visible to us in the mystery of the Transfiguration. Yet, as much as
the mountain is a place of exaltation and glory, it is also the place of
sacrifice and abasement. The mountain is also Moriah, where Abraham is called
by God to sacrifice his son, his only son. The mountain even more is Golgotha,
where the Son of God Himself enters into suffering and death.
The tree and the mountain must
ever be the subject of our meditations and prayers. As the Lord Jesus Himself
told us, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself
will be exalted. We must determine to climb the mountain of the Lord, led on by
our love and desire for God. As David tells us in the Psalms, “who will climb
the mountain of the Lord, and who will stand in His holy place? He whose heart
is blameless…” We must become accustomed to accepting the tree of the cross in
our life. This is simple. We must visit
the suffering of Christ often in our thoughts and prayers. We recall these
sufferings even constantly, and we remember that our sins are the cause of
them.
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