Taking Up Our Cross

In today’s Gospel, Luke 9:22-25, Jesus tells his disciples and us that he must suffer. He tells us, “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. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

In the words of Father Bonaventure Perquin, O.P., ” Our crosses are given to us, and we must take it as we find it, not pick and choose the one we want.”

We are all tempted one way or another, and in those temptations is where we bear the crosses we carry. Each one different every day and at every hour. The decision we have to make is how well we are going to carry our cross. We can bear the cross in Christ or we can bear the cross in the world.

Christ gives us an example of how to carry the cross. In the Stations of the Cross, we see Christ fall and get back up, not once but three times total. The key is getting back up. Not allowing the pressures of this world and cross to keep us down; perseverance to end with Christ by our side. He will place people in our paths to help us… His Mother, Mary, teaches us the sorrows of her heart; how to remain along the path to the end of the foot of the cross. He places Simon in the path to show us there are people willing to help lift us – we only have to extend our hand. He places Veronica on the path to show us that there will be someone there to help wipe away the tears, and the sweat it will take, to make it to the end.

So let us not be afraid to carry our crosses: the good ones, the bad ones, and the indifferent ones. When we trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ, we can do all things, through him who empowers us. Phil. 4:13

I pray we will bear our crosses with Christ and for Christ so that God’s might and glory may be revealed. Amen.