Meaning of the Feast & Application for Today
The Cross is not just a symbolic ornament to wear as a good luck charm or outward sign of our faith, rather it is a way of participating in the love of God that is stronger than any evil, even death.
Armenians take this power very seriously, as evidenced by a favorite saying Sourp Khatch yeghitsi indz oknagan | Սուրբ խաչ եղիցի ինձ օգնական | Let the Holy Cross be my helper! It has never been easy for any people anywhere to be committed Christian, even moreso for Armenians, yet time and time again, God has fortified our people and delivered us from evil.
Today’s celebration of the discovery of the Cross commemorates the finding of the true cross of Christ by Emperor Constantine and his mother, Helena in the early fourth century. Yet even centuries later, those who seek to find the cross and its deepest meaning in their lives will be blessed in ways they cannot imagine.
Sunday School Bulletin Prepared by Diocesan Dept. of Children & Family Ministries
Selected Bible Reading
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.