Today Father Micah shares with us a message of hope, that if we look to Jesus in faith and live a life that is permeated with the presence of the Risen Christ, we will inherit eternal life. On the Sunday before the Holy Cross the Gospel reading comes to us from John 3:13-17. In this pericope Jesus says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life”. The Cross for Orthodox Christians has become the key to unlocking the treasures of scripture and the world. Father Micah gives us several examples of how the wood of the Cross is prefigured in the Old Testament, from the “Tree of Life” in the Garden of Eden, to the wood that sweetened the bitter waters of Mamre. The Good News for us is that because of our belief in the Resurrection we can encounter Christ in the Church and that death is not the final chapter.