Fast of the Cross Day 4

Fast of the Cross Day 4

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:iii) The Saving Cross - Sleebo ForooqoyoThe Cross is an historical event, which took place to prove Christ's incarnation and serves as His vehicle in accomplishing the salvation of the world. lt is through the victory of the Cross over sin and death that we are saved. The Cross has paid our debt, liberated us, renewed our nature and given us baptism as the means by which we acquire the redemption of the Cross. The two prominent examples of the saving work of the Cross are Adam and the thief. Instead of being a means of punishment and death to them, the Cross becomes their way to life and salvation. With Adam and the thief then, the whole creation is saved by Christ's Cross because in Christ the past, present and future become a sacred time participating in God's mysteries.This transcending of chronological boundaries is vividly painted in the following excerpt from the 'Cave of Treasures':"In everything, Christ made Himself like Adam, as it is written, and in the spot Melchizedek served as priest, where Abraham offered up a lamb as a sacrifice, there the wood of the Cross was stuck. This place is the middle of the earth, and there the four comers embrace together. Because, when God made the earth, His great power would run ahead of Him, and the earth would run after Him from the four comers; there, at Golgotha, God’s power arose and stopped; and there the four corners of the world embraced each other: this place is the door of the universe, and the place was opened. When Shem and Melchizedek put Adam's body in the middle of the earth, the four comers ran and embraced Adam, and the door was shut immediately, and none of Adam’s children could open it. But when the Cross of Christ—the Savior of Adam and his children—was placed over it, the door of the place opened on Adam’s face. And when the Cross was fixed over him, Christ was wounded by the spear, and blood and water flowed from His side, they flowed into Adam’s mouth and became his baptism, and he was baptized with them."Reference: Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim, 'The Sign of the Cross', in Pro Oriente Syriac Dialogue V 2003; The Book of the Cave of Treasures (as quoted in 'Invitation to Syriac Christianity')