Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB
These are challenging words from Our Lord today: who
really wants to suffer and carry his cross? And then Our Lord goes on to say if
you want to save your life, you will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my
sake finds it. It doesn’t sound too inviting being a follower of Jesus. But
that is what Our Lord is calling us to do: to take up our crosses and have Him
as the center of who we are.
Jesus says that following Him is not
about self-fulfilment, but self-denial. It is not getting your best life now,
but about losing your best life now in order to gain eternal life! Following
Jesus is not self-centred, but it is cross-centred.
Being a follower of Jesus Christ is a way of life. We
are called to have Jesus as the center of all who we are. There is no one more
important to who we are then the Lord. Following Jesus and the commandments of
God are countercultural. We are called to do things that most everyone would
turn away from. We are called to love God with our whole mind, heart, and soul.
We are called to do what is always right and just in all situations in our
lives out of service to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This doesn’t mean that we are to turn away from this
world and to live as monks or nuns in some cloistered monastery. We are called
to follow Jesus and to bring the love of God into a world that is full of
hatred and violence. We are called to walk the way of truth and to be a witness
that Jesus is true God and true man. Many people deny this. But we are called
to share this truth with everyone we meet, whether it’s family or friends.
That’s where the cross comes in. Jesus is letting us know that it’s not easy
being His follower, but by having Him as the center of who we are, and living
out our Christian lives, we can have that peace that can only come from loving
God.
By living this way as followers of the Lord, Jesus is
promising us salvation and eternal life. By losing our lives and making Jesus
the most important person in our lives, we are finding true life. We will
always have suffering in this life, but living God centered lives, we will have
that peace that comes from God alone.
Walking the path of Jesus includes the regular use of the
sacrament of penance when we fall short of our Christian vocation, and we are
to receive Holy Communion as often as possible. Finally, we are to love others
as we love ourselves. It’s not easy, but it is what our Lord is calling us to
do to gain eternal salvation. So, place Jesus in the center of all you do in
your life. Lay down your life for Jesus and find eternal
life instead!
Yes, the idea of taking up a cross & enduring suffering is very scary & I tend to back away, at least a little, because I am afraid of suffering.
ReplyDeleteThere are times when following the LORD DOES bring the GREATEST JOY, the GREATEST FULFILLMENT & the BEST LIFE when we are using our God given gifts & potential, doing what we love, & doing things at which we excel & we are serving GOD & people & receiving affirmation & approval.
But then there are other times when we are called to step back, at least a little (and hopefully we can "juggle" so it is not too much) from some of the things we love so much (which might even mean some things connected to our life in the Church) & serve in ways in which we feel less qualified, such as caregiving, where we experience learning to love sacrificially & where we need to learn to do things we never dreamed of doing & depend on GOD Who qualifies the called, Who makes us His instrument ny loving others through us & enables us to do more than we could ever ask or imagine. Sometimes in examples like this GOD calls us to become like Simon of Cyrene by helping someone else to carry his/her cross.