The Cross Saves Without Ceasing

Abune Melketseydq (bishop in Oakland) has provided the daily prayers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, to the American language speaking world, in his book The Teaching of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Here is a prayerful paragraph

I worship before the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was consecrated with his precious blood. The Cross is our might, the Cross is our strength, the cross is our ransom, and the Cross is the medicine of our soul.

Orthodox (the upright religion) Christians are oft seen making the sign of the cross. We do it when we enter churches, see churches in the distance, eat, go to sleep, arise, are frightened, et cetera.  The simple act of forming the cross with our fingers, raising up our hand to our head for the Father, down below our chest for the Son, and across our chest for the Holy Spirit is healing. We our reminded of the story of the Anointed Medicine.

The tree of life in Genesis is strictly not to be eaten from, according to the word of God. Humans did not listen to His precepts. The tree bearing the name of life, harbored death upon its consumers. Fast-forward to the time of Pontius Pilate, and Rome's ascension to the worldly throne. The tree of the cross is used to gruesomely execute enemies of the State. The tree of the cross is the tree of death. Its goal? To display the might of the Romans over any dissidents. One such dissident, is the Son of God. And the Son of God is God. It is His will that humans eat of the fruit of the tree of death. That fruit is the Son of God, our Anointed Medicine. This fruit from the tree of death grants us eternal life. The Bible gives us this paradox to mull over what the Apostle Paul calls foolishness in our eyes, and wisdom in the eyes of the Lord God.

The tree of life grants death, and the tree of death grants eternal life. Disobey God, and your wage will be death. Obey God, and you will receive eternal life. We have this present moment to decide.

We choose Him, and remember our salvation in Him, when we physically make the sign of the cross on our bodies. The vertical motion reminds us to wholeheartedly love the Lord, and the horizontal motion reminds us to wholeheartedly love our peers. Glory be to the Father, glory be to the Son, and glory be to the Holy Spirit (say 3 times whilst making the sign of the cross), now unto the ages of ages, AMAYN and AMAYN, so be it and so be it.

Post Scriptum:

Because we find that the Holy Apostle Paul tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), we may spend the rest of our lives making the sign of the cross. When we are sorrowful, infuriated, jubilant  or bored. The Holy Spirit is with us when we make the sign of the cross and obey His ordinances.