John Chrysostom, On the Veneration of the Holy Cross

In adorationem venerandae crucis

For the adoration of the precious wood.

62.747 Let us sing a new song, O peoples, to the righteousness of the King, the Lord, and let us confess, or rather let us sing hymns and glorify, and praise, adore, and magnify the presence of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, and in hymns let us adore and praise the venerable and thrice-blessed wood of the Master. Come, O beloved, dancing in praise and honoring in faith, with the prophet David let us sing and say: The light of thy countenance, O Lord, has been signed upon us. What light then, if not the cross of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, through which the world was saved, and we who believed were freed from the captivity of Beliar, and the record of our iniquities was torn up? Christ is the face of the Father; "He who has seen me," he says, "has seen the Father." And the light of the countenance, that is, of the Lord, is the cross; for on it, as a lamp on a lampstand, he illumined the world, and steadied the shaking earth, and split the rocks, and raised the dead, and having put the sun to flight, you clothed the heaven in sackcloth instead of darkness, wishing to show to the ungrateful and ignorant and God-denying Jews, that he who was crucified in the flesh was Master and Creator.

For this reason, O beloved, I seek and desire to bring you to the cross, and to praise it worthily; and I fear, being unworthy; for my flesh trembles, and my tongue is numb, and my lips are sealed, and my reason within protests to be silent. How then shall I, a lowly man, be able to speak worthily about the power of the precious and life-giving cross? But I will speak by the grace of God in part, as much as I understand; for not even angels are able to praise its power worthily. For angels adore this visible sign of the cross, not because of the nature of the wood, but because of Christ, who was willingly crucified on it in the flesh. Adam was condemned through the wood of eating, and the new Adam, Christ our God, strengthened us through the wood of the cross. And the word of the prophet was fulfilled, saying: You have given a sign to those who fear you, to flee from the face of the bow. The sign is the cross on the forehead and hand of the believer, the bow is error, the archer is the devil, the arrows are shameful thoughts, the wounds are sins. Come, faithful, let us enjoy the veneration of the precious and immaculate cross. For amazement seized every living creature, seeing Christ nailed to the scaffold, the maker and ruler of all, his sanctified side pierced by a lance, water and blood flowing from an ever-flowing spring, wearing the woven crown of thorns, drinking vinegar mixed with gall, lots being cast by bloodstained hands, servants of darkness and friends of gloom, so that each might receive his fitting portion. The orders of bodiless angels shuddered; heaven became gloomy, downcast, the light and brilliance of the stars was extinguished; the great giant, the sun, withdrew its torches, and darkness possessed the ether; and the day passed into deep evening, and the bright ornament of the temple was torn again; the earth was shaken by upheavals, and quickly the dead came forth from the tombs, loosed from their bonds. A thief dwells in paradise 62.748 by faith and a word, but Judas, smitten, was destroyed by hanging; Peter, being afraid, swears he does not know the Master who saved him from error, until a rooster, crowing, convicts him; and weeping bitterly, he washed away his sin.

In adorationem venerandae crucis

Εἰς τὴν προσκύνησιν τοῦ τιμίου ξύλου.

62.747 Ἆσμα καινὸν ᾄσωμεν, λαοὶ, τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ τοῦ βασιλέως Κυρίου, καὶ

ἐξομολογησώμεθα, μᾶλλον δὲ ὑμνήσωμεν καὶ δοξάσωμεν, καὶ αἰνέσωμεν, προσκυνήσωμεν, καὶ μεγαλύνωμεν τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ Θεοῦ καὶ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ ἐν ὕμνοις προσκυνήσωμεν καὶ ἐγκωμιάσωμεν τὸ σεβάσμιον καὶ τρισόλβιον ξύλον τοῦ ∆εσπότου. ∆εῦτε, ὦ ἀγαπητοὶ, ἐν αἰνέσει χορεύοντες καὶ πίστει γεραίροντες, μετὰ τοῦ προφήτου ∆αυῒδ ψάλλοντες εἴπωμεν· Ἐσημειώθη ἐφ' ἡμᾶς τὸ φῶς τοῦ προσώπου σου, Κύριε. Ποῖον ἄρα φῶς, εἰ μὴ ὁ σταυρὸς τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ Θεοῦ καὶ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι' οὗ ὁ κόσμος ἐσώθη, καὶ οἱ πιστεύσαντες ἠλευθερώθημεν ἀπὸ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας τοῦ Βελιὰρ, καὶ ὁ χάρτης τῶν ἀνομιῶν ἡμῶν διεῤῥάγη; Πρόσωπον τοῦ Πατρὸς ὁ Χριστός· Ὁ ἑωρακώς με, φησὶν, ἑώρακε τὸν Πατέρα. Φῶς δὲ τοῦ προσώπου, τουτέστι τοῦ Κυρίου, ὁ σταυρός· ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ, ὡς ἐν λυχνίᾳ λύχνος, τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐφώτισε, καὶ τὴν γῆν κλονουμένην ἔστησε, καὶ τὰς πέτρας διέῤῥηξε, καὶ τοὺς νεκροὺς διήγειρε, καὶ τὸν ἥλιον φυγαδεύσας, σάκκον ἀντὶ σκότους τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐνέδυσας, δεῖξαι θέλων τοῖς ἀχαρίστοις καὶ ἀγνώμοσι καὶ ἀρνησιθέοις Ἰουδαίοις, ὅτι ∆εσπότης καὶ δημιουργὸς ὑπῆρχεν ὁ τῇ σαρκὶ σταυρούμενος.

Τούτου χάριν, ὦ ἀγαπητοὶ, ζητῶ καὶ ποθῶ προσενέγκαι ὑμᾶς τῷ σταυρῷ, καὶ ἐπαξίως ἐγκωμιάσαι· καὶ δέδοικα ἀνάξιος ὤν· τρέμει γάρ μου ἡ σὰρξ, καὶ ναρκᾷ ἡ γλῶσσα, καὶ τὰ χείλη μου πεπήγασι, καὶ ὁ λογισμὸς ἔνδον σιγᾷν διαμαρτύρεται. Πῶς οὖν ἐγὼ, ὁ χθαμαλὸς, ἰσχύσω ἐπαξίως διηγήσασθαι καὶ περὶ τῆς δυνάμεως τοῦ τιμίου καὶ ζωοποιοῦ σταυροῦ; Εἴπω δὲ διὰ τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκ μέρους, ὃ καὶ καταλαμβάνω· οὔτε γὰρ ἄγγελοι ἰσχύουσιν ἐπαξίως ἐγκωμιάσαι τὴν τούτου δύναμιν. Τοῦτο γὰρ τὸ ὁρώμενον σημεῖον τοῦ σταυροῦ ἄγγελοι προσκυνοῦσιν, οὐ διὰ τὸ εἶδος τοῦ ξύλου, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν σταυρωθέντα ἐν αὐτῷ ἑκουσίως Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκί. Ὁ Ἀδὰμ διὰ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς βρώσεως κατεκρίθη, καὶ ὁ νέος Ἀδὰμ Χριστὸς ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν διὰ τοῦ ξύλου τοῦ σταυροῦ ἡμᾶς ἐνίσχυσε. Καὶ ἐπληρώθη ὁ λόγος τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος· Ἔδωκας τοῖς φοβουμένοις σε σημείωσιν τοῦ φυγεῖν ἀπὸ προσώπου τόξου. Σημεῖον ὁ σταυρὸς ἐν μετώπῳ καὶ χειρὶ τοῦ πιστοῦ, τόξον δὲ ἡ πλάνη, τοξότης ὁ διάβολος, βέλη οἱ αἰσχροὶ λογισμοὶ, πληγαὶ αἱ ἁμαρτίαι. ∆εῦτε οἱ πιστοὶ, ἀπολαύσωμεν τῆς προσκυνήσεως τοῦ τιμίου καὶ ἀχράντου σταυροῦ. ∆ιότι θάμβος κατεῖχε πᾶσαν ἔμψυχον κτίσιν, Χριστὸν βλέπουσαν ἰκρίῳ πεπαρμένον, τὸν ποιητήν τε καὶ μέδοντα τῶν ὅλων, λόγχῃ νυγέντα πλευρὰν ἡγιασμένην, ὕδωρ τε καὶ αἷμα ῥέουσαν ἐκ πηγῆς ἀεννάου, ἀκάνθινον φοροῦντα τὸ πλακὲν στέφος, ὄξος πιόντα καὶ χολὴν μεμιγμένην, κλῆρον λαχόντας χερσὶ ταῖς μιαιφόνοις, ὑπηρέτας σκότους τε καὶ γνόφου φίλους ὅπως ἕκαστος τὴν προσήκουσαν λάβοι μοῖραν. Ἔφριξαν τάξεις ἀγγέλων ἀσωμάτων· στυγνὸς, κατηφὴς οὐρανὸς κατεστάθη, τῶν ἀστέρων ἔσβεστο φῶς καὶ λαμπρότης· γίγας μέγιστος ἥλιος τὰς λαμπάδας ἔστειλε, καὶ σκότος κατεῖχεν αἰθέρα· ἡ ἡμέρα τε μετῆλθεν εἰς βαθεῖαν ἑσπέραν, ναοῦ τε στόλισμα φαιδρὸν ἐῤῥάγη πάλιν· βρασμοῖς ἐδονεῖτο ἡ γῆ, καὶ τῶν τάφων τάχος νεκροὶ προῆλθον τῶν δεσμῶν λελυμένοι. Λῃστὴς κατοικεῖ παράδει 62.748 σον ἐν πίστει τε καὶ λόγῳ, πληγεὶς δ' Ἰούδας ἀγχόνῃ διεφθάρη· Πέτρος φοβηθεὶς ὀμνύει τὸν ∆εσπότην οὐκ εἰδέναι τὸν ἐκ πλάνης σεσωκότα, ἕως ἀλέκτωρ ἐξελέγχει κραυγάσας· κλαύσας δὲ πικρῶς ἔπλυνεν ἁμαρτίαν.