Mole

The cross, as is known, in ancient times was the instrument of shameful execution. "Shame" - to see, a sight: above the head of the crucified was a tablet with a description of the composition of their crime ... Those passing by stopped, read, discussed the visible. Someone spat on the crucified, mocked him, or expressed anger, contempt, condemnation. Someone - silently passed by, and someone with someone entered into a dispute, commenting on the execution and the events that led to it ... A sign, so to speak, bickered.

The cross remains a sign to this day. Non-church people arrogantly accuse the Orthodox of surviving paganism: they say they worship an object, a fetish. Occult-oriented citizens, of whom - a lot in our time, consider the cross something like an amulet "from the evil eye", and it is often necessary to see in their necks, next to the cross, all amulets, zodiac signs and the like. They consider themselves atheists - they "reopen America" ​​anew, insisting that they say that under the sign of the cross from century to century evil churchmen created crusades, auto-da-fe, anathematizing science and culture, and other "obscurantism". High-browed scientists in the quiet of the cabinets write multivolume studies on the forms of the crosses of the Ancient Egyptian, on solar symbolism and on the inscription of the Jewish letter "tav" ...

Well, for us, then, having a high inclination to consider ourselves Christians, children of the Church of Christ, what does the cross mean? Just a sign of "party affiliation", by which you can identify your "own"? But the Church is not a party, not a public organization, the Church is quite different ... And many, alas, of those who today carry a cross, Christians are called more nominally. The road to the temple is to put a candle "for good luck", ask to sing the grandmother, get the "cherished" icon for the car - they seem to know, but ask them about what is said in the Creed, what is written in the Gospels, how long they communed with St. .Tain, and how to treat Christ at all - you sometimes hear that it would be better not to ask! .. (Of course, the reasons for this are different, as these people themselves are different, and we do not judge them, especially since in many respects in their non-unity with Christ, we are also to blame - how often, when looking at us, people do not see - Christ, how often from Shih word that sounds anything but a living proclamation of the Gospel ...).

Then - what is the cross for us? Protection? Yes - and protection. A very simple thing about which we, the weak, the scammers, the faithless, are constantly forgotten in the whirlwind of everyday life: seeing the cross on us, the unclean spirit understands: this man is Christ. And touch him - Christ intercedes, does not seem a little ... Of course, it is important, as we carry the cross, in which direction our thoughts and feelings are directed, our will, our faith. The cross is a sign of salvation brought into the world by the Lord - but it can become our salvation only on the condition that we want it, we seek, accept, do for its assimilation something, commanded by Christ and His Holy Church - albeit clumsily, weakly, but sincerely and with all his might.

And the cross is a sign of love. Love itself is a sign to be spoken. He who loves - in some way renounces himself for the sake of his beloved, sacrifices, forgives, substitutes. In short, by the standards of the household logic of "this world" - behaves extremely illogically, and even - scandalously, outrageously ... The logic of everyday life and the logic of love are different. At the heart of everyday life, an obvious "self" sticks out to itself, such seemingly indisputable ... Insist on your (your truth, your strength) at all costs! Forcefully, but to influence the other - for his own good, how else! If God followed this logic steadily, He would exert His power on man (and who, strictly speaking, could prevent him, He is all-powerful! ..). The unlearned prodigal child, the man who fell away from Him, God would try to return to Himself thunder and lightning, punishments and repentance, miracles and signs from the height of His unquestioned authority ... In the end, He could turn people into slaves, into obedient biorobots - well and that, though they were obedient, for their own good! .. But God did it differently - according to the logic of love. So the mother feels that the child is sick: "Yes, even if I have had it in his place! .." And so the mother acts when the child disappears from the house - goes after him on a terrible night, searches for him and searches him through the gates, cellars, dens, sacrifices himself for his sake - because he loves ...

So did God - went after the prodigal mankind on the terrible night of sin and death, into the cloaca of the world of the world. And this human path has passed - to the end, to death, to the cross, this is the destiny of love in a world lying in evil ...

But love can not die. And the logic of love led God further, the cross did not become the end of everything - the Resurrection took place. And after this - the opportunity for us to rise again, return from the path of orphan ordeal - to the loving Father, to his native home.

... I remembered the image from one ancient romantic story: two knights, the worst enemy, met in a duel. And now one knocks another on the ground, tears off the helmet to inflict the last fatal blow - and sees on the cheek of the enemy a birthmark. The hand with the misericord hung in the air ... What happened? The winner slowly takes off his helmet.
He cries, a tear runs down his cheek downwards, - on this cheek, too, is a mole, exactly the same ... So the two brothers learned each other, separated in childhood by someone's evil will.

So, the cross is our birthmark. Our family sign with you.

Priest Sergius Kruglov