Metr. Saba: The Cross Transforms Suffering Into a Path to Life

ENGLEWOOD, NJ — Metr. Saba (Isper) of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America has reflected on the role of the Cross in human life, arguing that suffering can become a path toward spiritual growth and the discovery of eternal life.

In the first part of his reflection, Metr. Saba cites Blessed Augustine’s teaching that one is saved through the Cross, another is saved by the Cross, and a third is condemned by it. Christ belongs to the first category, while every other person must respond to the Cross through either faith and acceptance or avoidance.

Metr. Saba writes that every person carries a cross because human life is temporary and inevitably includes pain, loss, and sorrow. Fleeing suffering does not eliminate it, he argues, but merely exchanges one cross for another. Confronting it with courage and faith allows a person to seek its meaning and understand how it can shape his life.

The Metropolitan also describes the world and its blessings as gifts from God, warning that modern consumerism can cause people to become attached to gifts while forgetting their Giver. Health, family, work, income, friendship, nature, and recreation are among the gifts that should inspire gratitude rather than possessiveness.

Yet every gift carries a cross because earthly blessings can be lost. Metr. Saba recounts the story of a woman who endured prolonged hospitalization, divorce, and childlessness before discovering through suffering a mission in nursing education and spiritual instruction. He concludes that Christians can bear the world’s transience with hope, knowing that the Cross precedes the Resurrection and that suffering, through God’s grace, can become a means of spiritual transformation.

Previously, the UOJ reported that Metr. Saba ordained two students at Antiochian Village.