Take up your cross

We don’t have to look far to be aware of the various crosses in our life. Belonging to families and communities’ opens us up to the human condition, its joys and sorrows. The suffering and pain of people is presented to us all the time through media and personal contacts.

The words, 'mourning and weeping in this valley of tears’ from the ‘Hail Holy Queen’ prayer captures something of this. Our human lives are a challenge, and some people are asked to bear and carry huge crosses. Our hearts go out to people having to endure such painful situations.

Perhaps we can be mindful of some of those situations now and bring them to prayer.

Today’s Gospel carries on from last weeks where St Peter was praised by Christ as a happy man for getting it right about his identity as the Son of the Living God. However, Peter’s grasp of Christ’s mission is incomplete despite his privileged position. In today's Gospel from Matthew 16: 21-27, we see him being admonished by Jesus for not grasping what discipleship truly means and involves. He and the remaining disciples have a long and painful journey to travel before they can hold together two seemingly incompatible truths: that Jesus is the unique Son of God and that he “must” enter the pain and suffering of the world to heal it from within. It can be a long and painful journey for us too because we are clever at avoidance. We don’t want to face some of the demands of being a disciple. Our experiences and failures are good teachers if we allow them to be.

All of us who are Disciples of Christ are called to follow him and will confront a measure of suffering along the way. St Peter grew in faith and understanding. He knew what it was all about in the end and was prepared to lose his life for the sake of his Lord. 

We all have our cross to bear. This doesn’t mean a joyless and unfulfilled life but one that refuses to be mastered by self-centredness, competition and ambition at the expense of others.

When we give of ourselves in difficult situations and devote ourselves to worthwhile causes we experience a deep sense of satisfaction and reward? In a sense we are giving something of our lives away and yet receiving so much more in return. Are you able to recall a situation like that?

We can argue, cry out in anger, and resist what our faith journey demands of us but if we are in union with Christ and secure in his love, we can and do follow after him and are prepared to face whatever that means. We need his help and that can come in all kinds of ways including the witness and inspiration of other people.

Blessings on your week 

You may like to listen to the song 'Be thou my vision' from 'A Noble Work'