The Cross - The Triumph of Love Over Death

The Holy Father Confessor Dumitru Stăniloae speaks to us

„To Your Cross we bow, Master, and Your Holy Resurrection we praise and magnify!” 

The Cross is the door to the Kingdom of Heaven. We must rediscover the meaning of the Cross as a victory over spiritual death, a victory of love.

„We often have a partial understanding of the Cross and its mystery, reduced to enduring asceticism, refraining from pleasures, from all kinds of satisfactions. However, there is also another meaning of the Cross: compassion for the other. Certainly, though, we cannot do everything for the other if we cling to our selfish pleasures, if man is bound by greed, lust for power, pride. This, however, only reveals the negative aspect of the Cross. I can approach the other without speaking to him about the Cross, by showing him, however, that I am ready for all sacrifices for him. If he is ill, I will go to him, I will stay with him. The other can endure hardships, persecutions, unemployment himself… And I can carry this Cross with him.

The other's heart can be moved if he sees that I carry a Cross for him. Then he will understand the meaning of the Cross without me telling him that it is precisely the Cross that impels me to do this. I simply do it.

Not just to preach to people to take up their Cross, but to take it up ourselves by helping others. Thus, I will come to the conviction that this Cross is not a suffering for me. I suffer for the other, but this suffering for him brings me joy, gives me rest, as a monk from Athos says.

If I pass by him, if I don't stay with him, if I don't help him, I will suffer my whole life. Perhaps he will be lost forever. He will say: «What kind of priest is this? What kind of Christian is this?» Thus, when I suffer for him, I am content. That is why Christ on the Cross is serene; Saint Cyril of Alexandria says that He «fell asleep»”.

„While sleeping a life-giving sleep in the tomb, O Christ our Lord, You have awakened all sinful mankind from the heavy sleep of sin” (Great Saturday, „The Lamentations”).

Certainly, on the Cross Christ also speaks the word: „My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34). God lives with me, man, the fact of feeling abandoned by God. Glory to You, Christ our God, Who desired to push self-denial to such an extent!

„Christ wanted to assure people that God does not want to intervene for His Son; He does not want to avenge Him. God is defenseless in the face of people's rejection; He does not defend Himself. He could have intervened, but He did not want to. He wanted to set an example by suffering for people, not behaving like a man, not reacting”. He loves His Son, but He does not prefer Him over people. He leaves Him in suffering.

When Christ says: „My God, My God...!”, He affirms that God exists: „He then tells people: «My Father does not want to react against your evil: He does not want to punish you, not even to defend His Son». God prefers the salvation of people over the rest of His Son”.

This dimension of God's „mad love” for people was highlighted by Nicholas Cabasilas in the 14th century. This Byzantine spiritual author writes that God had to „to act in such a way that this love would not be overlooked, showing its boundlessness, and convincing us that He loves us with an incomparable love. Then He finds this self-denial, strives and allows Himself to endure evils and trials to attract, after convincing them of His love, those for whom He suffered, even the people who fled from Goodness par excellence, convinced that they were hated”. („Life in Christ”)

People believe that God is indifferent, incapable of suffering for them. Satan, who is „the father of lies” (John 8:44), slanders God before people. To show His goodness and love for humanity, God appears defenseless before them and suffers for them.

“Many say: there is a God, but He is not good, because He allows suffering. It is an incomprehensible thing for the world. In the mystery of the Cross, God's goodness is manifested. He does not punish, does not react, accepts everything, even suffering, even the death of His Son, out of love for people. If man is not saved, it is only because he remains indifferent to this love.”

Through the Cross, we realize ourselves as human beings.

On earth, man goes through many trials. Everyone carries a cross. It is heavy and meaningless for those who have no one to comfort them. If they found such a person by their side, the cross would become easier to bear, revealing to them the very meaning of the Cross. The positive meaning of the Cross is to allow us to realize ourselves as human beings.

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest... For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 2:28-30)

“We cannot realize ourselves without communicating with the other. We cannot open the other's gate, we cannot tear down the wall that encloses the other and the wall that encloses ourselves, without the experience of the Cross. Christ tore down the dividing wall (cf. Matthew 27:51). Only the Cross tears down the wall. We enter life through communication with the other. We enter into God through the Cross, receiving from Christ the power to accompany Him. Today's civilization suffers from this isolation of man.”

I saw a modern hospital. I was struck by the extraordinary techniques. By chance, I noticed, through an open door, two women lying down, almost exhausted, unable even to keep their eyes open. No one was beside them to say a word…

“We cannot replace the person with technique. I prefer to remain in my poverty, but to be with my wife and daughter. For this, love is needed, dedication is needed. A difficult thing, because it disturbs my comfort. But if I avoid being close to the other, then I will suffer, perhaps, eternal torments. The Cross that saves me is not my suffering, but the suffering of the other; either he suffers for me, or I suffer for him. Christ suffered on the Cross for others ‒ not for Himself, nor for a specific group to the detriment of another group.”

“A man's spirit can endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” (Proverbs 18:14)

From “The Little Spoken Dogmatics. Dialogues at Cernica”,

Rev. Dumitru Stăniloae and Rev. Marc-Antoine Costa de Beauregard, Deisis Publishing House, 2025