Fast of the Cross Day 5

Fast of the Cross Day 5

Admin: The inclusion of this event in the online calendar is for educational purposes. Please follow the guidance from one's spiritual father. The Fast of the Cross is not found in the Hudaya Canon of Mor Gregorios bar Ebroyo and is not presently one of the fasts currently in vogue within the SOC worldwide.Patriarch Mor Aphrem II brings to our attention different names associated with the Holy Cross within the patristic tradition:iv) The Cross of Reproach - Sleebo dHesdoThe humiliation of the Cross becomes glory when it carries Christ, just as the chariot of the Cherubim is filled with glory because the Lord is in it. This paradoxical interpretation is found also in St. Philoxenos when he writes in his commentary on John's Prologue: "He carried the Cross which is connected with disgrace so that we achieve a victory that is full of honour."Mor Jacob of Sarug also uses this term in his homilies on the Apostle Thomas. In the second homily, we read that the Lord tells Thomas to take up the Cross and go to India, without feeling ashamed of it because it is the vehicle by which the Lord went to the land of the dead and destroyed both sin and death. James writes: 'By this vehicle I killed the human killer, the evil, and by it I weakened death who had weakened the course of the earth. This Cross has become a vehicle for Me towards the dead, and by it I freed the thief from all captivity.'Reflecting on the faith of the repentant thief, St. Ephrem the Syrian writes in his 'Commentary on the Diatessaron', "It was because he had seen, with the eyes of faith, the dignity of our Lord instead of His shame, and His glory instead of His humiliation, that he said, "Remember me." What is apparent now, the nails, the cross, will not make me forget what will be at the consummation and which is not yet visible, Your kingdom and Your glory."Reference: Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim, 'The Sign of the Cross', in Pro Oriente Syriac Dialogue V 2003; 'Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron'The Enigma of The Cross (courtesy Urho, the Way): https://urhotheway.com/2020/07/06/the-enigma-of-the-cross/