The third week of Great Lent is called the Holy Cross week. A photo of her main symbol - decorated with flowers of the cross - you see on this page. Crucifix week as if sums up the first half of the hard way. On Friday in the evening service, a festively decorated cross is solemnly taken out from the altar for general worship. It will be in the middle of the temple on an analogue until Friday of the next, 4th week of Lent, recalling the approaching Holy Week and Easter.
The cross is a symbol of the ransom sacrifice
Starting the conversation about the importance of the Cross-worshiping week for Orthodox Christians, it is necessary to answer the question why the cross, that is, the instrument of torment, is chosen as the object of worship.
The answer follows from the very meaning of the Savior's suffering on the cross. On him His atoning sacrifice was made, opening the gates of sin-damaged man to the gates of eternal life. Since then, Christians around the world see in the cross, first of all, a symbol of the salvific feat of the Son of God.
Christian doctrine of salvation
Christian doctrine testifies that for the salvation of human nature damaged by original sin, the Son of God, having incarnated from the Blessed Virgin Mary, has found all the elements inherent in her. Among them are passion (the ability to feel suffering), perishability and mortality. Sinless, He absorbed in himself all the consequences of original sin, in order to heal them in torment on the cross.
Suffering and death were the price of such healing. However, due to the fact that in Him two entities were divinely and indivisibly combined - Divine and human - the Savior was resurrected, revealing the image of a new man, freed from suffering, disease, and death. Therefore, the cross is not only suffering and death, but, very importantly, the Resurrection and Eternal Life for all who are ready to follow Christ. The Holy Week of Lent is just designed to direct the consciousness of believers to comprehend this feat.
The history of the celebration of the worship of the cross
This tradition was born fourteen centuries ago. In 614, Jerusalem was besieged by the Persian king Hosra II. After a long siege, the Persians captured the city. Among other trophies, they took out the Tree of the Life-Giving Cross, which has been kept in the city since it was found by Equal-to-the-Apostles Elena. The war went on for many more years. By combined forces with the Avars and Slavs, the Persian king almost captured Constantinople. Only the intercession of the Mother of God saved the Byzantine capital. Finally, the course of the war changed, and the Persians were defeated. This war lasted 26 years. At its end, the main Christian shrine - the Life-giving Cross of the Lord - was returned to Jerusalem. The emperor personally brought him into his arms in the city. Since then, every year was celebrated the day of this joyous event.
Celebration time setting
At that time, the order of the Lenten church services was not yet established in its final form, and some changes were constantly made to it.
In particular, the transfer of holidays that fell on weekdays of Lent to Saturday and Sunday came into practice. This allowed us not to violate the severity of fasting on weekdays. The same thing happened with the Feast of the Holy Cross. It was decided to celebrate on the third Sunday of Lent. The tradition, according to which the Cross-worship week became the third week of fasting, has survived to our time.
In those same days, it was customary to begin the preparation of the catechumens, that is, the converts, the sacrament of baptism of which was scheduled for Easter. It was considered very advisable to begin their instruction in faith with worship of the cross. This continued until the thirteenth century, when Jerusalem was conquered by the crusaders. Since then, the further fate of the shrine is unknown. Only individual particles of it are found in some arks.
Features of the church service during the holidays
The cross-worshiping week of Lent has a characteristic peculiarity inherent only to it. At the church services of this week we recall an event that has yet to be accomplished. In everyday life, one can recall only what has already happened, but for God there is no concept of time, and therefore, in His services, the boundaries of the past and the future are erased.
The third week of Great Lent - Cross-worshiping - is a recollection of the coming Easter. Sunday Church service is unique in that it combines the dramatic prayers of Holy Week and joyful Easter chants.
The logic of this construction is simple. This order of order came to us from the first centuries of Christianity. In those days, in the minds of people, suffering and resurrection were united, and were links in one inextricable chain. One logically flowed from the other. The cross and suffering lose all meaning without the resurrection of the dead.
Cross-worshiping week is a kind of “pre-holiday” holiday. It serves as a reward for all who worthily passed the first half of Lent. The situation on this day, although less solemn than in the Easter service, but the general mood is the same.
The special significance of the holiday today
The third week of Great Lent - the Cross-worshiping - has become especially important today. In gospel times, when the execution on the cross was considered shameful, and only runaway slaves were subjected to it, not everyone was able to accept as the Messiah a man who came in such a humble appearance, sharing a meal with publicans and sinners and executed on the cross between two robbers. The concept of sacrifice for the sake of others did not fit in the mind.
They called the Savior mad. And doesn’t the same folly these days preach self-sacrifice for the sake of others? Is the slogan calling for the enrichment and achievement of personal well-being by any means possible at the forefront? Contrary to the religion of enrichment, which is now practiced, the week of the 3rd Great Lent - Holy Cross - reminds everyone that the greatest virtue is the sacrifice made to one's neighbors. The Holy Gospel teaches us: what we do for our neighbor, we do for God.