Department for External Church Relations
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Metropolitan Hilarion: We praise the Cross of Christ as the tool of death that has given life
On September 27, 2013, the Day of the Elevation of the Lord’s Honorable and Life-Giving Cross, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the church of Our Lady the Joy to All the Afflicted-in-Bolshaya Ordanka, Moscow.
In his homily after the service, Metropolitan Hilarion spoke of the history and meaning of the feast, saying in particular,
‘We glorify the Cross of Christ as the tool of death that has given life as the tool of execution that has delivered us from execution. We praise it as the symbol of victory not only over physical enemies but also spiritual ones, because it is with the symbol of the cross that we defeat adversaries and overpower the devil. When the enemy of the human race tries to approach us, we make the sign of the cross and he steps back. If we feel some evil approaching us, we make the sign of the cross and the evil moves away. It is a very simple, very powerful and always effective tool that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us. But it is effective not because it was created such. The Cross has become so powerful through the suffering of the Lord Saviour and His death of the cross. And today the Cross is the source of this power, this grace and this victory’.
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