Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear friends in Christ
There is a phrase in the Gospel this Sunday which we have heard so many times that it may have lost it’s impact: If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. The words “every day” are important. Our Lord does not ask us merely to carry the cross on the great occasions of life, when suffering is obvious and our faith is tested in dramatic ways. He asks us to take up the cross daily.
For most of us, the daily cross is not something spectacular. It may be the patience required by a difficult person, the burden of illness, the disappointment we did not expect, the work which seems thankless, the sacrifice we make for our family, or simply the struggle to remain faithful when prayer feels dry and God seems distant. The temptation is to think that these things are interruptions to the Christian life. In reality, they can become the very place where we meet Christ.
Jesus does not say: Take up your cross and carry it alone. He says, Follow me. The Christian does not carry the cross by himself. Christ walks with us. Indeed, He has already gone before us along the road of Calvary. He knows the weight, the exhaustion of the journey, the loneliness and the pain. And because He has passed this way before us, no cross carried with Him is ever meaningless.
St Augustine expressed this beautifully: He who loves Christ does not fear suffering. Love changes the way we see the cross. What appears to be merely a burden can become an offering; what seems like a defeat can become an act of faith. There is also something deeply Eucharistic about this. At every Mass, we are brought back to Calvary. We place upon the Altar not only bread and wine, but our own lives—the joys and sorrows, sacrifices and disappointments of the week. In the Mass, Christ takes what we offer and unites it to His perfect sacrifice. Perhaps, then, one of the simplest prayers we can learn is: Jesus, I give this to You. When the day is difficult: Jesus, I give this to You. When someone has hurt us: Jesus, I give this to You. When we are tired or discouraged: Jesus, I give this to You. When we cannot understand why something has happened: Jesus, I give this to You.
The cross is not the final word. The cross leads to the Resurrection. Every Christian who walks faithfully with Christ discovers that suffering, when united to Him, can become the pathway to deeper holiness and ultimately to glory. So let us not ask only that God remove our crosses. Let us ask for the grace to carry them with Jesus, faithfully and lovingly, one day at a time. For the cross we carry today may be the very thing through which Christ is preparing us for the joy of heaven. May God bless you!
Msgr Kevin Hale