To
be a true disciple and to truly live a Christian life, is, as our
Gospel reminds, to embrace the cross. Yet, by doing so, we are faced
with one of the most challenging, mysterious and demanding aspects of
our lives as Christians, because, when Jesus says that we must take
up our cross, it is, indeed, our
cross, not His, not someone else’s, but ours, which makes it so
unique, which makes it also
so painful
to us.
Because by embracing it, we learn how to imitate Christ, who did the same, we learn, in short how to truly follow Him. St. Augustine, a great saint of the Church, once said: “Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.”
So, whether it has come in the form of a loss of someone close to us, a loss of a job, a physical ailment, a sickness, a surgery, a temptation, a problem with family or friends, or any other sufferings. Perhaps, it has not been seen as such, but, quite simply, that is Christ saying: “come, take up your cross and follow me.”Yet, if we are honest, truly honest, most of us fear the Cross, we fear what it wants of us and we would rather flee than embrace it. And, truth be told, that is a natural response, because it asks of what we don’t want, and in fact, requests that we deny our very selves and not just ourselves, but all of those things and people we find that may hinder us from fully embracing that Cross.
In fact, in some of the most difficult language, Jesus says we must hate father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even our own lives. But, to hate, in this context, is not the same hate that we know and harbor, the same hate that provokes revenge, rather, it is hate, as it is rendered in the Semitic, which means to detach ourselves, or, put another way, to love another not on our own but through God, with God, not apart from Him, a lesson we practice every Lent when we give up that which we love the most for the sake of God, a lesson that those who enter religious life learn when their focus becomes larger than just their family.
So, that by embracing the Cross we are placing priorities in our lives, never forgetting what we learned, in essence, in the solitude of Gethsemane and finding out who we truly are, what we are truly made of and how strong we can actually be.
Because Jesus is addressing a crowd similar to our own today, He is addressing a world where people and things are venerated more than Him, where a person or an object becomes the very essence of our lives, and, sometimes, even our only desire in this world, sometimes to the absence of God.
In fact, our commercials are designed this way, so that all we want is what we can never have, because once we buy it, it’s already old. What He is saying though is that once He bought us with the price of His own blood, we didn’t need anything else, we don’t need anything else, it’s all right there in the tabernacle, it’s all right there on the altar.That is why the pinnacle of detachment, is, indeed the Cross, because Jesus had nothing while He hung for our salvation, there was nothing for Him to look at, nothing for Him to feel, nothing for Him to enjoy, except the sun on His wounds, the blood in His eyes, and the pain throughout His body.
And, even those He was closest to, He gave away, as it were, He commended St. John to His Mother, and by extension, to all of us. He reminds us of what detachment truly means, that when we leave this world, we take nothing and no one with us, except our angel beside us and what we have done in this life.
Yet, that is both the power and contradiction of the Cross, that is what it means to daily embrace the burdens that Christ places upon us, because we then see not just what the Cross means, but how it shapes our lives and calls us to make the difficult decision to bear the heavy weight upon our shoulders each and every day, to walk side by side with Christ, to renounce everything we are, and everything we think we are, and to truly see that next to Him we are a speck in this vast existence, an ant in comparison to the Cross.
So that we know and fully understand that the Cross is, indeed, a symbol of hope, the Cross is a symbol of Resurrection, the Cross is a symbol of new life, it is more than just pain, it is more than renunciation, more than just detachment, it is, as many saints have called it, a school, and what we learn there, at the foot of the Cross, is that it truly is nothing more than the door to Heaven and, indeed, the banner of victory.
Because by embracing it, we learn how to imitate Christ, who did the same, we learn, in short how to truly follow Him. St. Augustine, a great saint of the Church, once said: “Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.”
So, whether it has come in the form of a loss of someone close to us, a loss of a job, a physical ailment, a sickness, a surgery, a temptation, a problem with family or friends, or any other sufferings. Perhaps, it has not been seen as such, but, quite simply, that is Christ saying: “come, take up your cross and follow me.”Yet, if we are honest, truly honest, most of us fear the Cross, we fear what it wants of us and we would rather flee than embrace it. And, truth be told, that is a natural response, because it asks of what we don’t want, and in fact, requests that we deny our very selves and not just ourselves, but all of those things and people we find that may hinder us from fully embracing that Cross.
In fact, in some of the most difficult language, Jesus says we must hate father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even our own lives. But, to hate, in this context, is not the same hate that we know and harbor, the same hate that provokes revenge, rather, it is hate, as it is rendered in the Semitic, which means to detach ourselves, or, put another way, to love another not on our own but through God, with God, not apart from Him, a lesson we practice every Lent when we give up that which we love the most for the sake of God, a lesson that those who enter religious life learn when their focus becomes larger than just their family.
So, that by embracing the Cross we are placing priorities in our lives, never forgetting what we learned, in essence, in the solitude of Gethsemane and finding out who we truly are, what we are truly made of and how strong we can actually be.
Because Jesus is addressing a crowd similar to our own today, He is addressing a world where people and things are venerated more than Him, where a person or an object becomes the very essence of our lives, and, sometimes, even our only desire in this world, sometimes to the absence of God.
In fact, our commercials are designed this way, so that all we want is what we can never have, because once we buy it, it’s already old. What He is saying though is that once He bought us with the price of His own blood, we didn’t need anything else, we don’t need anything else, it’s all right there in the tabernacle, it’s all right there on the altar.That is why the pinnacle of detachment, is, indeed the Cross, because Jesus had nothing while He hung for our salvation, there was nothing for Him to look at, nothing for Him to feel, nothing for Him to enjoy, except the sun on His wounds, the blood in His eyes, and the pain throughout His body.
And, even those He was closest to, He gave away, as it were, He commended St. John to His Mother, and by extension, to all of us. He reminds us of what detachment truly means, that when we leave this world, we take nothing and no one with us, except our angel beside us and what we have done in this life.
Yet, that is both the power and contradiction of the Cross, that is what it means to daily embrace the burdens that Christ places upon us, because we then see not just what the Cross means, but how it shapes our lives and calls us to make the difficult decision to bear the heavy weight upon our shoulders each and every day, to walk side by side with Christ, to renounce everything we are, and everything we think we are, and to truly see that next to Him we are a speck in this vast existence, an ant in comparison to the Cross.
So that we know and fully understand that the Cross is, indeed, a symbol of hope, the Cross is a symbol of Resurrection, the Cross is a symbol of new life, it is more than just pain, it is more than renunciation, more than just detachment, it is, as many saints have called it, a school, and what we learn there, at the foot of the Cross, is that it truly is nothing more than the door to Heaven and, indeed, the banner of victory.
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