The image of a cross is made up from a vertical and horizontal line. The vertical line reminds us that we come from heaven and we’ll go to heaven. We are o double reality. We are always on the vertical and always on the horizontal, with debts to pay in heaven and debts to pay on the earth, born on the earth and in heaven. Always with our thoughts hanging on matter, and aiming to the high.

So is the human condition. We must see it as it was given by God but not to forget neither about the horizontal dimension – our duties on earth; neither about the vertical dimension – our duty to God.

(Translated from Mitropolitul Antonie Plămădeală, Tâlcuiri noi la texte vechi, Editura Sophia, Bucureşti, 2011, p. 51)