Nebab #69 Meskel - The Finding of the True Cross
NEBAB #69
The Orthodox Tewahedo Magazine
MESKEL - THE FINDING OF THE TRUE CROSS
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Archdiocese of the Caribbean and Latin America
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God Amen.
"The Wooden Cross which was buried at Golgotha by the Jews is found today." (St Yared's Hymn Book of Helena)
The Feast of the Cross (in Ge'ez, መስቀል mesqel) is celebrated on Meskerem 17 (September 27 or September 28th in leap year) and Megabit 10 (March 19). In Ethiopia and Eritrea, and in Orthodox Tewahedo parishes around the world, the faithful sing hymns, retell and reenact the story of the great Christian queen Helena, and illuminate the evening with a great bonfire.
We keep this feast every year in thankfulness to God for becoming One of us, only without sin, and being counted with the sinners, suffering what we have suffered, and more than we could ever suffer, dying- even though He is immortal, and is Life Himself- to buy us out of slavery with His own blood, there being no more precious currency with which He saw fit to redeem the creatures He had made in His image, to share His glory and be united to Him by His love.
- The Deity Who has no place to stretch or contract Himself stretched out His hands to suffer!
- The Deity Who has neither firmament above nor foundation beneath fell to His knees, having the heavy wooden cross above Him and the earth of the streets of Jerusalem beneath Him!
- The Deity Who has neither chest nor back by which He can be seen was whipped on His back until His bones were counted, and was pierced through His chest, blood and water flowing from His rib!
- The hands that made Adam and took Eve from his side, and the feet that walked in the garden, were driven through with iron nails and fixed to the tree of the cross!
"Remember us Lord in Your kingdom, remember us Lord Master in Your kingdom, remember us Lord in Your kingdom as You remembered the thief on the right hand when you were on the tree of the holy cross!"
In the days when her son, Constantine, ruled the Roman empire, which God united for him through the power of the cross, the righteous woman Helena wished in her heart to honour the cross on which our Saviour, the Prince of Glory, died. Now the precious cross had been buried by the wicked Jews, who wanted to stop people from being healed by it, and believing in the life-giving power of the One Whose blood had sanctified it. To this end they commanded their people that they should bury it under their garbage, which they did for centuries, until Helena found the hill and dug up the crosses buried there. How did she find the place? Her prayer to God was to show her the place where it was hidden, and she was instructed to build a bonfire, and burn incense on it, and to follow the smoke, which led her to the hill of rubbish. She commanded the hill excavated, and found 3 crosses buried there. Believing in the Lord's life-giving death on the cross, she brought a dead man, and laid him on each cross. When he immediately rose up, she knew that the cross she had laid him on was that on which the Immortal died to destroy death. The celebration which followed the finding of the cross was similar to that of the Resurrection! For this reason we continue to light the bonfire, and to honour the life-giving cross, which our Lord made His throne.
May the prayer of Helena, by which her son became a saint, make us fit to carry our cross daily, and follow our Lord.
1 Peter 2:9-10
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people
but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained
mercy.”
The symbol of the cross is not merely about wood or symbols but
about the person who is on the cross Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our
contemplation during this feast should be on Him. The person on the Cross.
In 1 Peter 2:9-10, the verse suggests belonging and nationhood "A Holy Nation".
“We are the nation of the cross” means belonging to Christ. Through His death, burial and resurrection we are joined to the family of Christ in heaven. That is why St Paul says in Romans 6: 3-4 "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?"
Through Jesus Christ, all of humanity are give the opportunity to be united under one banner, which is the cross, the foundation of the Church.
St John Chrysostom explicitly says "It was from His side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam." The water and blood represents the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion
Through baptism, we become
children of God and in our new life, we should rid ourselves through repentance
of all sins.
Every believer offers his body and life as a sacrifice of
love to God through prayers, praises and good works which is the general
priesthood. Likewise priests lead the church in offering the holy sacraments
before God, which is the special priesthood. Spiritual sacrifices include
humility, repentance of sins, rejection nof selfishness, striving in worshop,
labor in service and thanksgiving at all times. All striving in life is based
on the salvation granted to us by Christ the Redeemer
God declared in the Old Testament through the mouth of His prophets that from the Jews would come Christ the Savior of the world, whom He likens to a cornerstone, meaning the one who connects the two perpendicular walls.
“For it was fitting that the Lord should suffer this death, and that he should stretch forth his hands upon the cross, that he might unite the one people of the Gentiles with the people of the Jews.”
It is Christ who connects all of humanity. He is the
foundation of the building, chosen by God for the redemption of humanity, and
precious because He is the only begotten Son
Whoever believes in Him will be saved, and as they live
their entire life in Him, they will triumph over Satan and will not be put to
shame in eternity but will enjoy the kingdom
The image and representation of Jesus Christ on the cross reflects
Christ’s abounding love for us who belong to His body as well as those outside
of his body who He wishes to call in and draw unto himself. God’s desire for
all of humanity is that All will be saved and come to the knowledge of the
truth, belonging to one sheep fold.
“And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one
flock, one sheperd.” John 10:16
And again “until we attain to the unity of the faith, and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature
which belongs to the fullness of Christ” Ephesians 4:13
Saint Athanasius also expresses this in His writings "On the Incarnation" that Christ stretching forth His hands on the cross is to unite the one people of the Gentiles and the Jews"
In reflecting on the cross of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
and the nationhood of the church, we are reminded again of the words of St Paul
the Apostle “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is
there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
The nationhood of the Church represents the fullness of
humanity in the one resurrected Christ
Here is this chapter reflection God is also saying that all
of those, including us who were far from mercy due to our persistence in sin
are being brought closer to mercy through faith and repentance and through God’s
mercy and salvation in the holy sacraments.
If it were not for the salvific work of the Holy Trinity through the cross and in
the sacraments that we received, then we could not be called the children of God
The cross therefore is not mere symbol but reflects the person on the Cross Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His active working to draw all people to himself
A miracle performed by Our Lady Mary, Holy Virgin Mariham, the Mother of God. May her intercession be with us, amen.
It is said there was a judge in a city who had a good way of life [and who] loved God and Our Lady Mary, the Holy Virgin Mariham, with his whole heart. He served her with his whole mind. Because of this, God granted him favor and gave him many good things.
However, wicked men hated him. So they went to the king who appointed him and slandered the judge, saying, “Look, judge so-and-so has wasted and squandered all your possessions. It is not enough for him to scatter your possessions. Look, he has even slept with your wife, the lady.”
When the king heard what they had said, he was enraged, and he commanded the judge to be brought to him. When the judge arrived and stood before the king, the king said to him, “Is it not enough that you have wasted my possessions? Even more than that, you have brought dishonor upon me having slept with my wife! So now I am going to kill you.”
At once, he gave the order to tie [the judge] up, tear his clothes, blindfold his eyes, and hang him. But that judge was beseeching God and asking Our Lady Mary, the Holy Virgin Mariham, saying to her, “My dear merciful Lady, you know that I have not committed this offense. I’m asking you to help me and save me from this hanging!”
The king heard the judge asking for help from Our Lady Mary, the Holy Virgin Mariham, and the king answered him arrogantly: “As for the Lady Mary Mariham, she will not deliver you from my hand today.”
Immediately, he gave the command to hang him. They took the judge and hanged him upon a tree, so that he would die quickly.
But in that moment, Our Lady Mary, Holy Virgin Mariham, the Mother of Mercy, One who shows compassion for sinners and saints, came and safeguarded that judge for three days and three nights without suffering distress. She was giving him something to eat and drink.
On the fourth day, she brought him down from the gallows and said to him, “Go to the church and praise God. Tell of how God has shown favor to you.”
The judge entered the church and worshiped praiseworthy and exalted God. He retold the Miracles of Our Lady Mary, the Holy Virgin Mariham, and what she had done for him.
Everyone who saw and heard this miracle worshiped God and praised him. They praised Our Lady Mary, the Holy Virgin Mariham.
Using his [own] likeness, that judge made an icon as evidence [of the miracle]. He hung it in front of the icon of Our Lady Mary. It hangs there to this day, serving as testimony to the miracle of Our Lady Mary, the Holy Virgin Mariham, who showed him mercy and delivered him from death.
May her prayer and blessings be with her servant Constantine for ever and ever, amen.
There were 3 common Roman shapes used to hang a criminal from a tree as a form of capital punishment. They were what we commonly call the saltire cross (the 'X' shape), the tau cross (the 'T' shape), and the Latin cross (the '✝' shape). The Latin cross was useful because a title could be attached to the top, and as recorded in the gospel, Pontius Pilate attached a trilingual title to the top of the Lord's cross. In his epistle, St Barnabas the apostle writes that the Lord's cross was in the shape of the letter tau. If it was common tau to which he referred, this is the shape of the Latin cross. If capital tau, this is the 'T' shaped tau cross, which then takes on the shape of the Latin cross because of the addition of the title above it.
Miracle of Mary: https://pemm.princeton.edu/en-us/stories/157
Ethiopian Synaxarium: https://www.scribd.com/document/30141643/The-Ethiopian-Synaxarium
https://eotcmk.org/e/the-holy-cross-and-its-celebration/
https://english.eritreantewahdo.org/?sermons=793
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