In the Gospel we read at Mass today, (Luke 9: 18-24) We hear Jesus say to his disciples "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." This little saying comes right after Peter's confession that Jesus is the "Christ of God" and Jesus' first prediction of his Passion, death, and Resurrection.
What does this saying of Jesus mean? Admittedly, it is very difficult to understand, but let me begin by saying that Jesus is NOT calling us to carry a physical cross. No, I believe that the real meaning of this statement goes much deeper.
Jesus, in calling us to daily take up our cross, is driving home the point that Discipleship is a choice- one that must be made every day. We must choose TODAY to put Christ first. We must choose TODAY to let go of our addictions, our fears, our hatreds, and serve God alone. We must choose TODAY to be Christ to and for others. And the choice we make today does not carry over into tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, we must forget about everything that went wrong in the previous day, and make a new commitment to follow Christ. This is what Discipleship is all about.
But what of Jesus' calling us to "deny ourselves" or "lose our lives" for his sake? Doesn't that seem kind of harsh and impersonal? On the surface is kind of does seem that way, when we try to interpret it with our definitions of what it means to deny ourselves or to lose our life. But it goes so much deeper than that.
Again, Jesus is not calling us to starve ourselves, or allow ourselves to be killed for the Gospel- What Jesus is saying to us is something radical. He is calling us to let go of (to deny) the self that is only interested in the "I, me, my" and to draw closer to God by reaching out to others, and allowing Christ to live through us. This again is a choice that MUST be made every day. How? We must ask God for the grace to live the Gospel every day. God's grace, and our discipleship, are not one shot, you get all that you need to live the Christian Life deals. I can tell you that 5 years ago, I did not have the Grace to be walking the path to Priesthood. God only gives us the Grace when he knows we are ready for it. But at the same time, a person cannot receive something that they are not open to receive.
So why is being a true Disciple of Christ so hard? There are many possible speculations and ideals about this, but I believe that at the root of it all is the fact that we live in a culture which pays lip service to God, but does not allow the Gospel to penetrate deep in to the core of our being. We don't like to feel pain, so instead of letting the Gospel pierce our hearts and move us into action, we just sort of gloss over the difficult parts of the Gospel, and turn it into something that makes us "feel good" about God and Jesus. But as Christians, this will get us nowhere. We must allow our lives to be shaped by the Gospel, and realize that when we hear something difficult, it is God calling to us, and leading us on to greater holiness.
Once we begin to allow God to lead us to greater holiness, then we can become Christ to others. I'm going to close this post with something written by St. Theresa of Avila.
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Let us all strive to follow Christ daily, and be his Hands and feet to the world. May this Radical following of Christ inspire others to greater holiness. AMEN!!
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