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| Bishop Parthenius, Abbot of Bigorski |
A sermon by His Eminence, Bishop Parthenius, Elder and Abbot of the Holy Bigorski Monastery, delivered at the Vespers for the Feast of the Cross, in the Temple of the Holy Great Martyr George the Triumphant in Rajcica, on 13/26 September 2020 Year of Our Lord.
My dear ones, when an army wins, it raises its flag as a symbol of victory. The people of Israel, in the time of the Old Testament, were the only guardians of the God-revealed faith, but they were often tested because of their passions, which led them to deviate from the path of the truth.
One of their greatest temptations was Egyptian slavery when the descendants of Jacob were forced to suffer for five hundred years in a foreign land. However, God heard the prayer of His people and therefore choose the Prophet Moses, one of the greatest righteous Prophets of the Old Testament, to lead Israel into the land of their fathers, to the inheritance of Prophet Abraham. Endowed with great power from above, Moses succeeded in leading the people out of Egypt and finally, after forty years of wandering in the wilderness, brought them to the Promised Land. We can say that their long journey was their crucifixion, filled with many temptations and sufferings, by which God protected them from wickedness, educated and turned them into noble and kind people.
Most outstanding act of Moses, who was already aged is the last event which happened before the Jews entered Canaan. Namely, when the army of Joshua, the disciple and successor of Moses, fought against Amalek and his people, who had occupied the Promised Land, Moses stood at the top of the mountain and prayed. While his arms were raised in the shape of a cross, the army of Israel was winning.
However, because he was old and frail, he could not keep his hands in the shape of a cross all the time, so his brother Aaron, the High Priest and his assistant supported him on both sides. This way, they succeeded in defeating the Amalekites, even though they were far more numerous. So they won, not by the strength of his army, but because of the prayer of their spiritual Father, Moses. It seems that God wanted to show Israel that you can work hard and fight as much as you want, and you should work hard, but it is all in vain if you do not have the power from above, the power that comes from the symbol of victory – the cross. Thus, with this miracle, Prophet Moses predicted the Cross of the Lord. Soon after, his earthly life ended, and the Jews entered the Promised Land. If we immerse ourselves in this unusual event, we will discover great symbolism. Namely, the initial letters of the names of Moses’ companions Aaron and Or are, in fact, the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet: Alpha and Omega – the beginning and the end. It refers to the Messiah Christ, Who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Rev. 22:13) What a beautiful introduction of the Cross and the One that was crucified on it!
While still alive, the leader of the nation, Moses, foretold the coming of a Prophet far greater than himself. He humbly knew that he was only a messenger of the One who was to come and establish a New Covenant between God and the sons of men. In the same fashion, the New Moses, Christ our Savior, after His salvational deed on Earth, stretched out His hands at Golgotha and raised the Cross as the symbol of victory. That is why on this day we celebrate and triumphantly raise that symbol. And that is why today’s holiday is called Elevation, i.e. raising of the Holy Cross, and it is done in the memory of the discovery of this weapon of peace by Empress Helena, the mother of the Holy Emperor Constantine.
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