“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24)
The cross is terrifying. We fear it and I believe that is because we take it out of context. We look at it as if it stands alone and we fail to incorporate it into the entirety of what Jesus taught.
Jesus taught us that crosses come daily and that we need to pick them up. If we look at Jesus‘s life, we see He was not crucified, put to death and buried daily. He did have daily crosses, but they came in the same form that our crosses come in. They showed themselves in His acts of self-giving that were needed so as to daily accomplish His vocation and mission. They specifically came in the form of Him walking many miles to teach others His message. They were evident in the verbal abuse He encountered from those in authority and the disrespect He received from the people of His own town. He gave us a glimpse of it when, after all His teachings, the apostles didn’t understand Him. We glanced at it when we saw that His prayer life was interrupted by those who wanted what He could give. And, of course, we see that even as a baby He had to experience the cross in the pain of circumcision and in having to flee to a foreign land so as to escape death. Through many examples, Jesus gave us a picture of what the self-giving crosses of His vocation entailed daily so that we could all relate to the self-giving crosses we must embrace to complete our vocational mission. Compared to the crucifixion, these self-giving acts may seem small, but it is not the size of the sacrifice that matters. It is the love in which we embrace them that matters. Jesus lived what He taught so we can imagine that a glass of water given by Him was a small sacrifice done with great love. We can imagine that Jesus was aware of picking up the daily crosses with love and by them, His love for us grew. The same holds true for us. The more we pick up our crosses with a self-giving heart, the more our hearts will expand with love.
There are other forms of the cross that Jesus faced, but that are more subtle in the writings. They came in the form of transitions. The transition of fleeing from the homeland that His parents knew and the comforts their hearts would have known in raising their son there initially. The transition of leaving His boyhood to become a man at his bar mitzvah and what would be expected of Him in the transition of one day having to leave His mother’s home in order to set out on a path unfamiliar to Him. In these times, while all crosses are self-giving, we can see more evidently the death of one life in order for a new life to rise and have growth. We can see that Jesus lived the scripture He taught…“Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it will not grow fruit” (John 12:24). We can relate to those times of transition. We’ve had to say goodbye to the friends in our class because we have completed the year of school. Like the grain of wheat, to grow we all have to leave the familiar at some point and say goodbye in order to graduate, to marry, to move to a new town or state, to find a new job or to retire. The transitions are painful, but we must be like the grain of wheat if we are to move forward towards some type of greater growth.
In these daily crosses and transitional ones, we can grow closer to Jesus because we know that out of great love for us, He suffered the same way. We can meditate on a daily cross He endured that seem similar to ours so as to draw closer to Him. While meditating with an open heart, we may get new insights on how to deal with our situations and have a heart more drawn to God as we see the emotions He felt during similar times. We suddenly sense that we are not alone. We recognize a seed of love that is causing us to suffer. We are aware that if the love is a self-love it needs to be purged so that we can be closer to God. We are also aware if the reason for our suffering is a self-giving love and we know that love is God loving in us. We understand His heart more and know that He understands ours. Suddenly, the tedium of the daily crosses aren’t so annoying because in taking a prayerful pause, we find ourselves more deeply united to God and His love for us. Suddenly the heartaches of some of the more difficult crosses aren’t as devastating because we see an invitation to be one with God and His love.
Of course, some crosses come out of nowhere and are truly devastating. We will begin to reflect on those in Part 2 next week.
Prayerfully Reflect and Talk to Jesus About:
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24)
“Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it will not grow fruit” (John 12:24).
“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you? And the King will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these little brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:37- 40)
Pick 4-5 Gospel messages of Jesus. It doesn’t matter which you choose. Pray beforehand and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in what you choose. What sacrifices can you see Jesus making in them? How might they relate to some daily crosses and self-giving you are experiencing? Talk to Jesus about them. Open your heart to how He felt at the time towards His love for God and neighbor. How does your heart feel now? Is your heart similar to His? Can you have compassion for what He felt? Does that give you a greater insight? Allow yourself to feel closer to Jesus based on what your heart is feeling. Be open to the expansion of love for God and neighbor through observing Jesus and His acts of self-giving.