His Grace Ignatie - Bishop of Huși  

"The Cross - the sign of love for the suffering and the stranger" 

Lent Conferences Series - Through the doors of repentance to the joy of the Resurrection organized by the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada at the initiative and with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian continued on the third Sunday of Graet Lent with a special guest - His Grace Bishop Ignatie. The Romanian hierarch held the conference entitled The Cross - the sign of the love for the suffering and the stranger. The opening prayer was pronounced by Bishop Ioan Casian and the hierarchical blessing was given by His Eminence Nicolae the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan of the Americas. 

The cross as love for the other 

It is a commonplace to think of the Cross in a painful version, as suffering that we must assume and atone for. This is a reductionist perspective that cannot be found in Eastern patristic literature, in which the Cross is not identified with suffering. The cross is not only suffering, but also perfect love, as St. John Chrysostom said: "The cross is the clear proof of God's love." 

For many, then, the carrying of the Cross is rather a fatalistic resignation. On the contrary, the carrying of the Cross should be a responsible assuming of love. Understanding the Cross as love implies a deeper understanding of life, as a sign of God's perfect love for us. Christ suffered for us in His love not from helplessness or fatality, as if He could do nothing but because of His obedience to the Father. Through His freedom, Christ loved us until the Cross. In Him we find the Icon of love nailed on the Cross, where God shares His love with us. In His suffering He is the One who gives us His love, loves us who do not deserve this love. 

The love of Christ is not do ut des like human love 

We understand love more according to the Latin saying do ut des, I give it to you, you give it to me, I love you if you love me. But if you criticize me, slander me, crumble me, I don't love you anymore. This is human love. Christ does not love us in this way, but with a responsible love in which He assumes responsibility for all humanity. We cannot properly assume even the love for one person, in the sense of bearing a conscious suffering that comes from love. 

Christ's suffering is complete because it contains love for us. Especially when we don't deserve it, because what He received from us, the people, at the foot of the Cross, was just persiflage, slander and ingratitude. The highest slander was when He was asked to come down from the Cross, that is, to work a miracle, take out His nails, and save Himself if He is the Son of God. The logic of Christ was, however, completely different. He humbled Himself, emptied Himself of His glory, appeared to us as a man of sorrow, as Isaiah said, because He loved us. He was the embodied pain for all mankind on that Cross which became the Face of perfect love. 

Christ the Stranger 

Christ who shares His love with us is also a stranger, in the sense of being perceived as a stranger by His own. You can't throw the torrent of hatred at someone unless you've distanced yourself from that someone. There is an evangelical passage in which Christ is described as a stranger, when He joins the two disciples, Luke and Cleopas, who were going to Emmaus. He seemed ignorant, unaware of what had happened on Good Friday in Jerusalem. Or Christ is the first stranger who comes in the vicinity of our life to dislodge inertias and limitations in our soul in which He enters with great delicacy. While talking to this Stranger, the disciples recall their intense experiences of those days, with a burning heart. The cross now becomes the sign of that Stranger's love. 

In His passion, Christ was not a superman, but suffered humanly, but His humanity was permeated by the energy of divine love. He asked the Father not to do His will, but His, not implacable, but free, with freedom and essential love. Love is in the DNA of suffering. As much suffering, as much love. We know this when we love a person and suffer when something bad happens to that person. The hardest suffering to endure is not our suffering, but that of those around us. For someone who is sick, nothing is worth more than your love. When you are put in the situation of living the suffering of the other, you realize what the mystery of Christ did on the Cross and means. As Evdokimov put it, "Suffering is the bread that God has always shared with people and will share until the end of the ages." In this way, man has as his companion the Christ whom love made die. It was not the hatred and wickedness of the world that nailed Him to the Cross, but His love for us. He caught death in the race and died because He loved us perfectly. This love gave Him the power to overcome death and sin. 

The conference ended with a series of questions and answers related to the topic presented and the final prayer. 

HG Bishop Ioan Casian thanked HG Bishop Ignatie for the spiritual talk, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae, the priests and believers who participated, Doxologia.ro, Orthodoxy of Youth and parishes within the Diocese who transmitted the live conference, Fr. Nicolae Codrea moderator of the evening, Mrs. Dana Bochiș - design, Stefan Athenagoras - communication coordinator and all those who made this event possible. 

[notes by Fr. Dragoș Giulea, PhD]