By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
This article was written in January 1992, 32 years ago, and was published in my book "Interventions in Modern Society". It is published here, because it has timeless validity, because we are saved by participating in the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ. The Cross is not separated from the Resurrection, nor is the Resurrection separated from the Cross, nor is the mystery of the Cross separated from Orthodox eschatology.
Participating in the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ is the precondition and experience of all the Mysteries of the Church and of spiritual life, it expresses Neptic theology, its hesychastic tradition, as formulated by the Apostle Paul: "Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal. 5:24) - "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14) - "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).
That's why the Apostle Paul writes: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." And because the Jews ask for proof by miracles and the gentiles by human wisdom, "we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness" (1 Cor. 1:18-24).
