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TAKE UP YOUR CROSS (Part 2 of 2) “Walking with the Word” is the name of our scripture program. In our last lesson, we examined the theme: TAKE UP YOUR CROSS . Considering the scripture passage, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself…” [Lk 9:23], we learned that the word “if” in this verse is very important. "If" refers to the condition of freedom necessary for a person to choose for or against something of great value or someone of great love. Now that Christ has secured your freedom, the words “come after me” call for your personal response to his gospel. Are you truly going to come after him? With the words “deny yourself”, Our Lord sets the standard of discipleship. You will be the servant of everyone; you will take the last place. You will bear insults patiently. You will forgive all who injure you. You will be sober and seek modesty in all things. You may choose to devote yourself to the Lord or ignore him, accepting fully the consequences of your decision-making. It’s up to you. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Our theme for today is TAKE UP YOUR CROSS Part 2 of 2. Today, we grapple with Jesus’ signature phrase, “Take up (your) cross daily and follow me.” [Lk 9:23] Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, Take up MY cross. He says, Take up YOUR cross. What’s the difference between the cross of Christ and your own cross? Clearly, the cross of Christ belongs to him alone. Before the creation of time itself, Jesus chose the cross as the fulfillment of his mission here on earth. He alone carried his cross. No one could carry it for him. Yet, the gospel message of the cross is certainly for all of us. Why does Jesus want you to carry your cross? What cross does Jesus want you to carry? This is our theme for today. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For today’s lesson, our subject is: TAKE UP YOUR CROSS Part 2 of 2, and our lesson centers on Luke Chapter 09, verses 23 – 24. AND JESUS said to all, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. [Lk 9:23-24] Jesus says that in order to follow him, you must take up your own cross. Not his cross, your cross. By following Jesus Christ and taking up your cross, you are being made into his image and likeness. By being conformed to his image and likeness, you are to imitate Christ himself in every thought, every word, and every deed. Christ took up his own cross of divine mercy for the sake of the world, that the world might know the forgiveness of sins and come to the Son of God who is, himself, Divine Mercy. To imitate our Lord Jesus, you must take up your cross—not just any cross, but the cross of divine mercy in your life. As Jesus offered mercy to the whole world by carrying his cross, you are to offer mercy to everyone in your little world by carrying your cross. Your cross of mercy is big enough. Your little world, which needs your mercy and forgiveness, is big enough. When Our Lord says, “Take up (your) cross daily and follow me.” [Lk 9:23], he knows that your doing this will take great courage and commitment. For we know that being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not a hobby. Discipleship is a vocation, but even more than that, it’s a holy way of life. Carrying your cross, and following Jesus who carries his, will change you forever. Jesus says, “Take up (your) cross daily and follow me.” [Lk 9:23]. What does Our Lord mean, but that you must make a conscious decision to follow him each day, and every day, of your life? How can carrying your cross be taken for granted? How can salvation be automated like a factory assembly line? No, the word “daily” means that with the dawn of every new day, comes a new decision. Every morning should begin with a morning offering of prayer. You renew your baptismal promises in prayer. You consecrate your thoughts, words and deeds of the day in prayer. You bless your household and all who shelter in its comfort. Sometimes you hear the expression, “He really has a heavy cross to carry” or “Her cross is more than she can bear”. These statements are true to a point, but they’re also misleading. Most of the time when we hear someone say something like His cross is really heavy, the cross, in this case, refers to a disease, or aging, a failed marriage, a troubled child, being out of work, disappointment and treachery and the like. But stop and think about it. These are the consequences of sin and of living in a broken world. Certainly, they are real and may cause great suffering. We accept a two-fold reality here. On the one hand, we accept the reality of the consequences of sin; on the other hand, we know our Saviour’s desire to liberate us from suffering. With this said, however, Jesus did not suffer and die for the precise purpose of alleviating the symptoms of evil. Neither did he shoulder his cross simply as a expression of solidarity with suffering humanity. In short, Jesus looked beyond the consequences of evil to the root cause of evil. Our Lord didn’t carry a band-aid. He carried a sword—his cross which struck down the very causes of man’s grave difficulties. The cross of Divine Mercy struck down the power of the Evil One; it shattered the power of sin and the rule of death. The cross of mercy provided a two-fold victory: It defeated the principalities and powers of evil. [cf. Eph 6:12] And, it paid mankind’s heavenly debt to God. The True Cross of Christ cannot be compared to the so-called cross of “life’s troubles—the so-called cross that every single man, woman and child in history shouldered before the advent of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus didn’t come to the world to carry the kind of cross of “life’s troubles” that mortal human beings were already carrying. Jesus’ mission was to carry a cross unique to his purpose, a cross which no other person ever carried or ever will carry. The cross of Christ is the cross of Divine Mercy, not a cross of unemployment, cancer, homelessness and the like. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the Father, fulfilled the Father’s will by becoming human like us in all things but sin. He willingly took on his shoulders the work and the cross of Divine Mercy. YES, THE sacrifice of the cross breaks the power of sin and death, adversity and sorrow. But the cross itself is Divine Mercy. And the heaviest burden possible to carry in this world broken by sin is the demand of Divine Mercy. Jesus carried on his shoulders the greatest burden anyone on earth has ever carried—the burden of sins not forgiven, the burden of a fallen race, the burden of a humanity incapable of saving itself, the burden of a debt owed to God for human life and stewardship. The cross of Divine Mercy broke the power of sin and all its miserable consequences, in other words, everything that can cause even a single tear to fall to the ground. To shatter the power of sin and the rule of death is to simultaneously defeat the consequences of evil. So when Jesus says, “Take up your cross daily and follow me” [Lk 9:23], he is not saying Take up your cross of unemployment or sickness or disappointment and sorrow and follow me. JESUS DID not desire to ratify the old cross given to us by the world. Why would Jesus become a man like us in all things but sin, and suffer his passion and death, just to polish the old, tired, wasted, despairing cross of the world? To defeat sin’s consequences of human sorrow and suffering, Jesus carried the incomparable heavy cross of Divine Mercy. The victory of the cross is the triumph of Divine Mercy. Our Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the third day to show us that his cross is the cross of mercy. JESUS HAS brought us, not the old cross of the world, but a new cross, his cross, the cross which only he could carry, the cross which made possible the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life for all who follow him. In Luke’s gospel, chapter 9, verse 23, Jesus commands you to Take up your cross of Divine Mercy daily and follow him. As Jesus offered himself in sacrifice to ransom the world from its fall in sin and restore humanity to fellowship with God the Father, so you are to carry your own cross of Divine Mercy and do what Jesus did. Conformed to the image and likeness of Christ, you are to offer yourself daily in sacrifice to mercy. This is to say, that you are to forgive one another as the Father in heaven has forgiven you. Herein is the meaning of Jesus’ words Take up your cross daily and follow me. You who lack the basic necessities of life, take up your cross of Divine Mercy. You who are sick, take up your cross of Divine Mercy. You who are in prison, take up your of cross of Divine Mercy. You who suffer the death of a loved one, take up your cross of Divine Mercy and bury them reverently in consecrated ground. Jesus says, "For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it." [Lk 9:24] How does a Christian save his life by losing it? St. Paul addressed this precise question in his letter to the Romans: WE WERE buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. WE KNOW that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7. For he who has died is freed from sin. [Rom 6:4-7] In other words, in Christ, we die to the old human nature of self-love and take on the new nature of loving God and neighbor as Jesus taught us. [cf. Mk 12:28-31] Immediately after teaching his apostles how to pray, the Lord reprises only one thought from the “Our Father”: "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”. [Mt 6:12] The Lord Jesus explained what this means, and he wants his thought to be thoroughly understood. With absolute authority, Christ reinforces his father’s command to forgive. He minces no words. He tells it exactly as it is. And there can be no manipulation of this thought or its implications: FOR IF you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; 15. but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. [Mt 6:14-15] These words of Matthew reveal the cross of Divine Mercy. Make no mistake, mercy is the heaviest cross than anyone can bear. Christ carried his cross to reconcile mankind to his Father and to its lost home of heaven. You carry your cross to bring mercy to everyone in your life, in your little world, to each person God brings into your life. Hence, you imitate what our Lord has done: YOU CALL me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15. FOR I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. [Jn 13:13-16] The cross of mercy is particularly hard to carry when you’ve been wronged, or insulted, when you’ve been humiliated or gravely hurt, and you are completely innocent. But to “wash one another’s feet” means to forgive, and forgive and forgive, even to accepting the glory of martyrdom for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ. Though, in the eyes of the world you are weak and a fool, you’re never stronger than when you shelter your human weakness in the arms of Divine Mercy who encompassed all humanity on the cross : IN THE days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. 8. ALTHOUGH HE was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; 9. and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10. being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. [Heb 5:7-10] Recall that when Our Lord had been stripped of everything considered to be of value in this world, he gave the world what it ridiculed and considered to be of no worth: obedience to Divine Mercy. At Golgotha, it appeared that mercy was extinguished and God himself destroyed. YET, IN the darkness of the three o’clock hour on the day we call Good Friday, a light shone that few, other than Jesus’ mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and the apostle John, could see. The treasure of heaven—Jesus Christ himself—was illuminated by mercy. Though the Son of God was bereft of all words other than “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” [Mt 27:46], the sacrifice of his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity pleaded pardon for sinners in the darkness of the grave. We begin every celebration of the Eucharist by making the sign of the cross. God condescends to graciously receive our worship in the Eucharist and in the Sacrament of Confession as our preemminent sharing in Our Lord’s cross of Divine Mercy. We advance far in the spiritual life when we go to Sunday Eucharist as if it were voluntary, and when we go to confession as if it were commanded! In any event, the habit of faithful discipleship with respect to Eucharist and Confession will count for more in the hour of judgment than any one ecstatic Sunday or one emotional confession. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Way of Christ is more than acknowledging the sin of the world. It is more than suffering the sin of the world. Anyone, believer or non-believer, suffers the sin of the world and their own sin. The Way of Christ means that we triumph over sin. CHRISTIANS FOLLOW the Lord’s example of love, righteousness and simplicity: we imitate him, we copy him, we model everything in our lives on him. We triumph over sin. We don't just suffer it. Remembering that Christ on the cross pays the debt your sins deserve with respect to heaven and eternity, are you making satisfaction for the temporal punishment that your sins have incurred in this life? Are you carrying your cross of mercy and following Jesus by performing constantly the temporal and spiritual works of mercy? [1] These works of mercy are taken from Our Lord's own intentions, words and deeds. We are commanded by him to do these things to: build up God's Kingdom, help those in need, and to make satisfaction for the temporal punishment due to our sins. King David had in mind the truth when he prayed, “Flee like a bird to the mountains”. [Psa 11:1] In the three o’clock hour on Good Friday, fleeing before the torrent of evil, truth returned to its ark and sleeping helmsman. From its refuge in the thorn of Christ’s crown, the light of truth proclaimed the speechless gospel of the cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. As a “lamp shining in a dark place” [2Pet 1:19] known as Golgotha, the splendor of truth illumined the still, holy face of Christ-Crucified as “God from God, light from light, true God from true God”. [SACRAMENTARY “Profession of Faith” Nicene Creed p. 368] In praise of his Lord’s resurrection and the glorious Diaspora of his gospel, Solomon the Great prophesied: ARISE MY love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely. [SongSol 2:13-14] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1. Feed the hungry. SPIRITUAL WORKS OF MERCY 1. Admonish the sinner. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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