Our
Lord’s disciples, like the other Jews of that time, apparently expected a Messiah
who would have had nothing to do with a cross.
They wanted a successful ruler, someone like King David, who would
destroy Israel’s enemies and give them privileged positions of power in a new
political order. So they could not
accept His clear word that He would be rejected, suffer, die, and rise again. When St. Peter actually tried to correct Him
on this point, Christ called him “Satan” and said that he was thinking in human
terms, not God’s. To place the pursuit
of worldly power over faithful obedience was a temptation Christ had faced
during His forty days of preparation in the desert before His public ministry
began. Then that same temptation came
from the head disciple, and the Lord let St. Peter know in no uncertain terms
that He must serve God and not the powers of this world. To place worldly
success over sacrificial obedience was simply the work of the devil. It still is today.
In complete contrast to what the disciples expected,
the Savior told them that they too must take up their crosses and lose their
lives in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The same is true for us, of course, for the false gods of power,
possessions, and pleasure cannot conquer sin and death. Indeed, they simply make us their slaves and
give us nothing in return but weakness and despair. The word of the Cross is that we too must
lose ourselves in the service of the Kingdom in order to participate personally
in our Lord’s great victory and blessing, both now and for eternity. That is how we find both life and our true
selves in God.
Though
we do not like to acknowledge it, holiness is on a collision course with the
conventional standards of our corrupt world.
That truth is the same for all nations, people, and cultures, for the
way of the Cross judges them all. The
witness of the martyrs from the origins of the faith right up until today in
the Middle East makes that especially clear.
But let us not think that taking up the Cross is reserved only for those
called to make the ultimate sacrifice. For
He calls every one of us to become a living martyr by dying to our sinfulness,
to how we have corrupted ourselves, our relationships, and our world. And that way of death to sin is the Cross,
for if we want to share in the joy of His resurrection, we must first
participate in the struggle, pain, and sacrifice of crucifixion.
No, that
does not mean trying to put ourselves in situations where we will be harmed or convincing
ourselves that we are persecuted for our faith whenever we do not get our own
way. We must never distort our religion
into a habit of feeling sorry for ourselves or finding a way to justify hatred
or resentment towards anyone. Our
calling is to follow the example of our Lord as we forgive, turn the other
cheek, and genuinely bless those who curse us.
If we crucify others even in our thoughts for whatever reason, we
condemn only ourselves.
No,
our calling is to crucify our own sinful desires and actions, the habits of
thought, word, and deed that lead us to worship and serve ourselves instead of
God and neighbor. That is very hard to
do in a culture that celebrates both selfishness and self-indulgence. In the name of being true to ourselves, people
today justify everything from adultery and promiscuity to abusing and abandoning
their own children. If any of our desires
go unfulfilled, we often feel justified in falling into anger, hatred, and even
violence toward those who offend us. In
our society everything seems to center on us, our desire, our will, our
pleasure, and our obsessive need to worship ourselves as creatures, rather than
the Creator.
As we
have all learned in one way or another, living that way simply makes us miserable,
ashamed, and enslaved to our passions. It is not how those created in God’s image and
likeness were made to find peace, fulfillment, and joy. Yes, some may seem to gain the whole world by
living that way, but they still end up losing their souls.
Saint Paul said of himself, “I have been crucified
with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” In other words, by dying to his sins, St. Paul
became a living icon of the Lord. Our
Savior’s glorification of humanity was made present in his life. He became truly himself in the divine image
and likeness by sharing in the Lord’s death and resurrection. The same is true of all the Saints, of all
those who have manifested in their own lives the holiness of our Lord, whether
they died as martyrs or not.
In our day, there are many cheap substitutes for a
life of holiness in which we truly take up our crosses and follow our
Lord. For example, popular culture
tempts us to believe that simply expressing ourselves is somehow really
virtuous. While there is nothing wrong
with “liking” a post on social media or putting a sign in our yard or a wearing
a t-shirt in support of even the most laudable causes, simply expressing an
opinion on an abstract issue usually requires very little from us and changes
nothing. That is especially the case
when our friends and neighbors tend to agree with us.
For example, it is much harder actually to give of our
time, energy, and resources to help a troubled or needy person than it is to
praise the idea of helping others. It is
much more difficult to live a life of chastity and purity as man and woman in
our decadent culture than it is to call for moral decency in society or to
criticize others whose struggles we do not know. Most of us have more than enough work to do
in purifying our own hearts before we start worrying about how strangers are
doing.
Regardless of how correct we may be in a theoretical
sense on any issue or problem, words alone will not suffice and may become a
distraction from our own repentance. In
order for our faith to mean something, we must act in ways that require
self-sacrifice if we truly wish to follow Jesus Christ. Yes, we have to actually do something that is
rarely easy or popular.
Of course, those with major health problems or other
profound challenges in their daily lives may take up their crosses simply by
enduring their sufferings with patience, humility, and trust in the Lord. There is no “one size fits all” journey to
the Kingdom, no legal definition, even as the Saints include people of so many
different life circumstances and personalities.
Regardless of our situation, we all have the opportunity to serve the
Lord faithfully in a way appropriate to the challenges that we face.
At the end of the day, Christ calls us all to live as
those who are not ashamed of His Cross.
We must take practical, tangible steps every day of our lives in order to
die to sin so that we may live the new life that our Savior has brought to the
world. If we do not, then we deny our
Lord by what we do each day as much as those who worship false gods. In fact, we worship the false god of self whenever
we do not follow the way of Christ in offering ourselves in free obedience to
Him. Our ultimate choice is between the
way of the Cross and all other ways, no matter how popular, easy, or moral they
may seem to be. If we ever think that we
are serving the Lord faithfully when what we do requires no real self-sacrifice,
then we should think again. He gave up everything
for us on the Cross. What will we give up
for Him?
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