This Sunday, at the midpoint of Lent, we celebrate the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross. Fr. Micah speaks of the beauty and power of the Holy Cross, which is the Tree of Life. He challenges us to ask ourselves, “How do we experience the Cross?”

To experience the Cross as a Tree of Life, we must heed the words of our Lord. Christ tells us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow him. Fr. Micah stresses the difficulty of these three commands, especially the third: “Follow me.”

To follow Christ, we must lay aside our lives, not just for our neighbors, but for our enemies as well. To follow Christ, we must follow him into hell itself to share in the light of the resurrection. Herein lies the great law of Orthodox spiritual life, Fr. Micah explains. To ascend, we must first descend. To be filled, we must first empty ourselves. To live, we must first die. This is the way of the humility of Christ, the way of the Cross.