Take up your cross, and follow Him

Jesus calls us to follow him. But you cannot just make a decision and go. Choosing Christ involves some important decisions. First, you have to deny yourself. You have to give up your own ideas, your own paths, your own solutions. To deny oneself is to let oneself be guided by God. Yes, each of us has ideas for life, each of us has ideas for proclaiming Christ, some of them can even be very good. But one thing is important, they must be in accordance with the Will of God, if they are not, then in humility we should abandon our ideas and say: Lord, your Will be done.

To follow Him is to take up the cross. It is impossible not to take up the cross. You can't say: OK, I'll follow you, but I don't want to suffer, I don't want to get in trouble, I don't want misunderstandings, I don't want persecution. I want a safe, idyllic road. Such thinking is unchristian. When you choose the way to follow Christ, the cross is inscribed in that way. I repeat, after Pope Francis: " When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord."

To follow Him is to imitate Him. “Come, follow me!”. Imitates, that is, follows His footsteps. The followers put his steps where Jesus put them. We are to imitate Him in what He did, in what He said, in how He lived. We don't choose one aspect of His life that suits us best. Either you are a disciple and follow Christ 100% or you are not a disciple and do not follow Him at all.

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it”. We cling to life, this earthly life, this human, we cling to everyday life at all costs. Relationships, money, etc. are important to us. But Christ is not important. Then be sure that you will lose it, because everything earthly is transient.

And when you choose the way with Christ, you dedicate your whole life, all that you are and all that you have, you tune yourself completely to Him. That's even if you lose something in the human understanding, then know that you will receive a hundredfold more. This is the Heavenly Economy.

Jesus also points out the importance of our witness of faith: “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels”. It is a reversal of thoughts: whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge him. Whoever is ashamed, I will be ashamed. Whoever denies it, I will deny. To confess Jesus is nothing more than to testify that we are His disciples. Bearing witness with words, but also with life. To deny Jesus is to reject His way, but also the promise of New Life, to follow the illusions of "this world".

A testimony is needed in every situation. We know this well, because every day we face a dilemma: How to believe in a world flooded with a wave of unbelief, in a world aggressively disposed to faith. Our testimony can be sign of cross in the bus or in a restaurant. Our testimony may be the resignation from party organized on Friday. After all, our testimony can be standing up for the faith in discussions with friends. These and many other examples that everyone can add to themselves are an expression of confession to Christ.

To remain silent for fear of ridicule or to submit to evil is to allow evil to happen. All of this can be a manifestation of our denial of Jesus. (Maybe, but not necessarily; every case is different) It is therefore time to put an end to conformity in favor of authentic witness.

It is not enough just to wear the key ring "I'm not ashamed of Jesus", but to show with our life every day that this sentence is not just an empty phrase. But that we are not really ashamed of Him.

Thought from Saint Faustina: “Jesus, my most perfect model, with my eyes fixed on You, I will go through life in Your footsteps, adapting nature to grace, according to Your most holy will and Your light which illumines my soul, trusting completely in Your help”.(Diary 1351)

“You are not living for yourself but for souls, and other souls will profit from your sufferings. Your prolonged suffering will give them the light and strength to accept My will.” (Diary 67)

“Oh Jesus, I thank you for the little daily crosses, for opposition to my endeavors, for the hardships of communal life, for the misinterpretation of my intentions, for humiliations at the hands of others, for the harsh way in which we are treated, for false suspicions, for poor health and loss of strength, for self-denial, for dying to myself, for lack of recognition in everything, for the upsetting of all my plans”. (Diary 343).

Until Tomorrow

fr. george