Cross and Fear
Sermon on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross.
The Gospel reading for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross during each Great Lent is dedicated to the theme of cross-bearing: "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it." It then speaks of the immeasurable value of the human soul. The words about the necessity of co-death with Christ to rise again with Him are followed by words about the shame of confessing Christ. Whoever is ashamed of Christ "before this adulterous and sinful generation" will be ashamed by Christ when He judges the world (Mark 8:34-9:1).
Thus, the Saviour affirms the inevitability of persecution (whether internal or external) and points to its cause—the world's hatred towards God. A human, as a rule, turns away from Christ out of shame (not wanting to be different from everyone else) and fear (the burden and pain of carrying the cross). The shame of confessing God is, in this case, also a form of fear. It is the fear of being misunderstood, rejected, mocked, or dishonoured. Therefore, fear is the primary tool through which the devil wages war against Christians.
In fact, if we look closely at the temptations faced by hermits, from St. Anthony the Great to modern desert dwellers, we see that they were primarily temptations of fear and the sufferings associated with it.
The demons appeared in the form of various animals, physically beating the saints, as happened with Joseph the Hesychast, frightening them with different visions, as we read in the life of Cleopa of Romania, and so on. During persecutions, the fear of torture was also the main tool used to coerce Christians to renounce their faith. Therefore, we need to study the nature of our fear and analyse its motives and roots to understand how to fight it and what to do when such temptations arise.
The sense of fear is inherent in human beings by God. Adam had it even in paradise.
He heard the Lord's command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the warning that if the commandment were broken, he would die. Therefore, within each of us, there is a force that draws us towards existence and a fear of the abyss of non-being. Accordingly, a person seeks what preserves their life and avoids what can destroy it. This is what we call the instinct of self-preservation. And if we were living in Paradise, it would protect us from the evil that can destroy our soul.
But we do not live in Paradise. We were cast out of it into this world, and within our souls, there is hell. The feeling of fear remains, but instead of functioning as it was originally intended – to protect the soul from evil – it now acts in us in a distorted way. Our fear is now connected not with love of God but with self-love and self-pity. In all cases, fear reveals our attachment to the world and its goods. Even the fear of death works in us not as a fear of losing life (which is essentially what God is to us) but as a fear of losing the ability to perceive this world with our five senses and cling to its joys. We also fear losing loved ones because we will be deprived of the possibility to communicate with them. And we often cry not for them but for ourselves.
In one of the teachings of the elders, there is a dialogue between a disciple and a teacher:
Disciple: "Why does fear overtake me as soon as I go out alone at night?"
Elder: "Because for you, the life of this world still has value."
This fear contradicts reason and is a sinful phantom of true fear. The fear of losing God has mutated into a fear of losing fallen existence although we still carry within us the knowledge of the inevitability of our death. John Climacus writes that "whoever serves God fears only God, and the one who lacks the fear of God, fears even their own shadow". False fear, mimicking a friend, is actually our killer, leading us away from true life.
The fuel for the actions of false fear is disbelief and weak faith. If man had true conceptions of the sensual world, to which he is so fanatically attached, and of the spiritual world, which is not so obvious, but much more real than the earthly world, he would not fear so much for his life or his health.
Some of the Holy Fathers regard false fear as a form of human madness.
Assuming that certain events must inevitably happen to us, why should we show useless anxiety on which nothing depends? The Fathers also point out a very important ingredient that strengthens and multiplies our fear – our imagination.
It is through imagination that our fears take on unimaginable proportions. The imagination anticipates what it thinks is going to happen, it paints frightening pictures of the future, makes terrible predictions, foments panic, and so on. Fear of what a person thinks is going to happen can drive a person to suicide, and it is the main cause of most suicides. False fear is the greatest artist, the best fantasy writer, and the most brilliant scriptwriter in the world. Even with objective motivation, it can turn a fly into an elephant and convince us of its real existence.
The closest passion related to false fear is pride. The inability to accept a situation with humility, which often arises independently of us, creates fear. "A proud soul is a slave to cowardice" (John Climacus). The Holy Fathers repeatedly emphasised that the stronger the ability of sin to cause fear under the guise of anxiety or terror, the less clearly one is aware of one's sin. Therefore, God-bearing father Diadochos of Photiki advises confessing even involuntary sins as a remedy for fear.
All this makes fear the best ally of the demonic world, which, manipulating our consciousness and imagination, forces us to fall into cowardice, despondency, and even despair.
Cowardice is a disease of the soul. It is also its strongest irritant.
Typically, cowardice manifests itself in unnatural behaviour, which does not correspond to the way a person should behave. It drives a person mad, establishing cruel dominance over them. It often paralyses the soul's activity, suppressing the will. That is why the devil finds it so important to cause this state in a person to impose his model of behaviour.
In any case, cowardice is always a sign of disbelief. To be cowardly means not trusting in God, who always cares for us, and without His will, not even a hair falls from our head. He who has gained grace and partaken of the power of the Holy Spirit cannot fear anything. With absolute faith in God, they will accept everything that happens to them in life with a peaceful heart and a calm soul. "Even if the sky falls to the earth, my soul will not tremble," says Abba Agathon.
With a proper understanding of the nature of false fear, its origins and the causes that lead to it, it will be easier for us to fight it and stop its destructive actions. In fact, Christ’s Cross is light for those who are meek and humble in heart. This is the state of courage and fearlessness that gives us the strength to fulfil the commandment we heard in this Gospel reading to take up our cross and follow Christ.
