The Holy Cross and Helena
Happy Holiday Children!
Deacon Zekrstos Tsegaye
On the 17th of Meskerem (27th of September) of every year, we celebrate the Feast of the Cross. This is when we remember the appearance of the glorious Cross of Jesus Christ, our Lord. After Jesus was crucified, many miracles were done near Jesus’ grave. When the Jews were aware of these miracles, they became very angry. They asked everyone in the entire nation to dump all of their garbage on the site, in an effort to bury it. This was the problem for 300 years; those years for everyone placed their garbage at Jesus’ grave, until a big pile of dirt had accumulated there.
However, Saint Helena, who was the mother of King Constantine, loved the cross because it appeared to her son before he went into a war over which he was victorious. She went to Jerusalem to look for the Cross. She asked many people regarding its whereabouts, but nobody knew for sure.
Finally, she met an old man who informed her that it was buried underneath the large pile of dirt. She immediately ordered her soldiers to clean the site. This made it easy to find the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ.
Then, at that location, she built a church in the name of the Cross.
We all love the cross and make the sign of it whenever we need help from God. The cross makes us strong and not afraid of anyone. Our Lord Jesus Christ have told us to take up the cross and follow Him (Mark 10:21), therefore the cross has become the symbol of all Christian art. The Christians make a symbol of the cross on their clothing’s, books and household utensils. In Ethiopia needle works, embroidery and jewelry are adorned by the sign of the cross. Some Christians tattoo the cross over their foreheads and Hans. The believers not only wear crosses in their life time but it also kept with them after death. Priests always keep the cross with them, give blessings with it and it is kissed by the believers.
We sing and pray as follows:-
“The Cross is our power,
The Cross is our strength,
The Cross is our ransom,
The Cross is the salvation of our soul,
The Jews denied, but we believed,
We, who believed are saved by the power of His Cross.”