The ecclesiastical tradition of venerating the Holy Cross has been developed since the second Council of Nicaea and continued to this day among the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches. As one of the oldest churches in the Christendom, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church remains dedicated to venerating the Holy Cross, and commemorates its discovery date, September 17, as a national holiday with an extraordinary spiritual celebration.
Celebrating the feast, we normally pay attention only to the historical moment where Queen Helena, the mother of Constantine I, was able to uncover the True Cross in the 4th c. However, whether we owe the true cross or its replica, the ultimate Christian experience of the Cross transcends this. We abide by the spiritual power of the cross, for Christ died on the Cross and concurred the power of death. Christ suffered on the Cross, which is considered a symbol of curse by the Greeks and the Romans, and rescued us from diabolic slavery. Thus, for those who believe in Christ, the Cross represents redemption, freedom, peace, love, unity and reconciliation.
When commutating the feast of discovery and exaltation of the Cross, we need to pay attention to Christ’s words that He invites us, “if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Remember that when Jesus asked His disciples to follow him in the beginning of his ministry, the Apostles sacrificed many things: their works, families, and friends. Though they know that following Christ is to have many enemies and experience sufferings, yet their faith in Christ overrides those fears and worries. Christ's invitation is a request to sacrifice ourselves for a better choice, that is His kingdom, and this invitation requires denying oneself and sacrificing egoism, bride, carnal pleasures, and other outnumbered fleshly desires.
Clergymen, specifically bishops and monks, willingly vow to deny any flashily desires stated above when they accept the priesthood vocation. However, as of today, having hundreds of anointed priests and bishops who received God’s special vocation to perform divine services, it is too sad to see the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church languishing by the absence of effective administration resulted from lack of dedication among its servants. The daily lamentation of the Orthodox Ethiopians broadcasted by media discloses that ordained clergymen who carried the Cross have forsaken their spiritual mission, forgotten their responsibility, and returned back to the world by practicing bribery, tribalism, negligence and corruption.
Let all of us be aware of that the apostolic Church of Orthodoxy that has crossed centauries of temptations will never fall down, for its patron (Christ) is all powerful and sleepless. While awaiting God’s miraculous intervention through prayers, let us be patient in the mean time and bear the fruits of the Holy Cross – love and support one another, and fight against diabolic spirits of antagonism, individualism, self-centeredness and tribalism, for these are the most contemporary vices that are destroying Ethiopianism.
Dear beloved Christians! As we celebrate Meskel, we need to practice two missing elements that are significant to our daily Christian life: morality and spirituality.
Do we have a standard to measure which Ethiopians are rationalists and which ones are racists and egoists? Regrettably, it has become a common culture to hear one group harshly criticizing the other as an evil or racist without investigating one’s daily practice. Let us avoid backbiting (hamet), which is blaming innocents and broadcasting a sort of information without investigating its authenticity; be genuine instead, practice an open face to face discussion, coexist, and make positive remarks that lead us to a peaceful resolution of confrontations.
Once we begin to develop the morality of genuineness, this leads us to spirituality. Godly Christians are not emotional but spiritual and serve God in spirit. A spiritual person does not lend his ears to hearing the sin and failure of his brother nor opens his eyes to see the nakedness of his sister. Let us faithfully bless ourselves by the sign of the Cross so that it gives us courage to introspect and confess our own sins, and liberate us from antagonistic spirit and racial prejudice, for the Cross is the symbol of God’s power through which we overcome all diabolic acts and fleshly desires. St. Paul Says, “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cori 1:18).
May God bless you and your families,
Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year,
Fr. Zemene Desta
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