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Before Christ was crucified, ‘a cross signified a death sentence, but now it has become an object of honour. Previously it was the symbol condemnation, but now it is the foundation of our salvation.’ Through the Cross, we have found the way that leads to the kingdom: ‘On account of the Cross, we no longer wander in the wilderness because we have come to know the true way. We no longer remain outside the palace of the King, because we have found the door.’ The Kingdom of God has been bestowed on us through the Cross. The Cross ‘has opened Paradise which was closed… For Christ said [to the thief], Today you will be with me in Paradise [Luke 23:43].’
The Cross of Christ is not only the road leading to Paradise and the door by which we can enter; it is also ‘the beautiful paradise of the Church’. It is the tree of new and incorruptible life which nourishes the faithful:
The Wood in former times brought bitterness into Eden, but the wood of the Cross has blossomed with sweet life. For Adam ate, and fell into corruption;
but we delight in the flesh of Christ
and live and are mystically deified,
receiving the eternal Kingdom of God.
Christ is King of the Kingdom that has come and is coming. It came through the Cross, and it is coming with the Cross. For when the end comes, then will appear the sign of the Son of man (Matt. 24:30), that is, the Cross. When the light of this world is extinguished once and for all, the sign of the cross will shine like a new sun. And just as ‘before a king enters a city, the soldiers will take up banners and lift them upon their shoulders to herald his entry’, so it will be at the Second Coming: 'When the Lord descends from heaven, He will be preceded by hosts of angels and archangels bearing the Cross upon their shoulders, and they will announce to us His royal entry.’
The Cross of Christ is the road, the door and the herald of the Kingdom of God.
-The Divine Litugy: A Commentary in the Light of the Fathers by Hiermonk Gregorios pg. 108-109
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