Author: Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSP

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 14:25-33

I remember once watching a skit that humorously demonstrated how our crosses were perfectly chosen by God for us. The skit made the point that if our crosses were cut down to a more “acceptable” size that wouldn’t be quite as burdensome to ourselves, they would in the end no longer be able to stretch across the chasm leading into heaven. They wouldn’t be the “bridge” which the crosses in our life are meant to be.

I have to confess that I’ve focused on crosses in my life as those things which irk me, cause me to suffer, or bring me into situations that are unfair and from which I cannot escape (but wish I could!). We all know the situations that we’d personally label “the crosses in my life.”

We learn from an early age to accept the cross and to unite ourselves to Jesus when the cross touches our life. And although some of my crosses have been profoundly hurtful or more difficult to endure than others, I’d have to admit on the scale of world events where the suffering of others is immense, my imagination of how the cross has touched my life can get a little over dramatic.

When the people who followed Jesus heard this invitation to take up their cross, they pictured something very different from the skit that I remember. It wasn’t humorous at all. They knew the person carrying the cross was on a one-way road to a humiliating and painful death. This is how Jesus loved us, and how we are called to love him in return. Jesus tells us that nothing should stand in the way of our love for him. Our love should take us on a one-way road to his heart!

It can be that family relationships support us in our love for Jesus and our walk of discipleship. If we need to make a choice, however, the choice should be clear.

There are times when advancing our careers and our material possessions and our ambitions will be in line with the values of Jesus in the Gospel. When they are not, the choice we need to make should be clear.

To prioritize Jesus is to categorically refuse to live in service of worldly desires so that we can freely choose to love in such a way that we will live eternally in the love that we have been shown by Jesus Christ. Carrying the cross means a living adherence to Christ Jesus.

Today ask yourself: “Jesus, what does this mean for you and for me?”

Image: Titian, Christ Carrying the Cross, Oil on Canvas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Praying with this Passage of Scripture

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Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”

Luke 12:49-53

Most of us are afraid of fire. Of course, there is fear of the fire that destructively burns on this earth, and there is certainly the fire that burns eternally. In this passage, however, Jesus was not speaking of fire in this way.

Jesus was speaking of the fire that would require us to lose our very lives to save our soul. It is a living fire that leaps up to the glory of God, a consuming fire that melts all that resists his loving embrace. Christian life can often be reduced to good feelings, successful community gatherings, projects and programs. Getting along. Doing a kind deed. Contributing time, treasure, and talent.

Jesus himself defines Christian life in another way:

“I am fire! I wish to blaze across the earth, setting the whole world on fire with this love that burns in my most sacred Heart! I don’t want anything or anyone to be lost! I will hand myself over to cross and death, bitter humiliation, loneliness and loss if only this fire will push men and women beyond the limits they have set for themselves, the boundaries by which they protect their own interest. How I desire that they break out of the personal worlds of their own making, and step into the Kingdom revealed by my Father.”

We encounter this raging fire through those sudden insights, shifts to conversion, and overwhelming moments of wonder that surprise us. We know they are not our own. Something is happening to us. Someone is pouring fire into us. Augustine, in his famous words written in the Confessions, talks about one of these moments of his own: “You called, shouted, broke through my deafness; You flared, blazed, banished my blindness; You lavished Your fragrance, I gasped, and now I pant for You; I tasted You, and I hunger and thirst; You touched me, and I burned for Your peace.”

Each of us, in our own way, have had at least one of these experiences with divine Mystery that have ignited a fire within us. A powerful way to begin prayer is to return to these moments. To relive them. To reread them if we have journalled about the experience. To share with God what we appreciate about them. It is in this way that Jesus continues to cast fire on the earth through our life and to call us out into the uncharted adventure of his blazing love.

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire” (St. Catherine of Siena).

Image: Arina Krasnikova, via Pexels

Praying with this Passage of Scripture

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While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
“This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment 
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation 
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

Luke 11:29-32

This Gospel passage hints at one question we should all be asking ourselves: Am I serving God?

This one question guided Saint John Paul II, as can be seen through his meditations and reflections handwritten in his personal diaries between 1962 and two hours before his death. (These are available in the book In God’s Hands: The Spiritual Diaries of Pope John Paul II.)

John Paul II was a pope of the Catholic Church, powerful, influential statesman on the world scene, and a devout man who transformed lives and nations with his charisma. His diaries, however, reveal him to be first and foremost a selfless servant of God. For over forty years, from his bishopric in Krakow, to his election to the papacy, to his final years, this one question guided him: “Am I serving God?”

In one note in his diaries in 1981, the then Cardinal Wojtyla wrote his reflections after a theological discussion with other priests:

“The word of the Lord. Do I love the word of God? Do I live by it? Do I serve it willingly. Help me, Lord, to live by your word,” he wrote. “Do I serve the Holy Spirit that lives in the Church?”

Jesus personally approaches each of us as the way, the truth, and the life of humanity. Each of us has been given a role to play in the unfolding of the mystery of salvation in the world. The most important question we can ask ourselves is this: “Am I serving God?”

The adventure of the radical discipleship required to follow Jesus will put us squarely in situations that will help us recognize those areas in which we aren’t yet serving God completely. Where we need conversion. Where we need hope. Where we need to give ourselves more wholly to love.

Over and over Jesus calls. Again and again, we are given the capacity to respond.

Jesus is, indeed, patient. Yet what he wants to give to us is so great that he will do everything possible to keep us from dilly-dallying along the way. He will prod our consciences and awaken us from our sleep.

Today, identify the one question you will write at the top of every journal page and allow God to ask you at the beginning of every day until your heart leaps up with a resounding “Yes! I will serve you with all that I am and all that I have!”

Image credit: Thomas J. O’Halloran, photographer, U.S. News & World Report magazine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Praying with this Passage of Scripture

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As Jesus passed by,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed him.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners came
and sat with Jesus and his disciples.
The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples,
“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
He heard this and said,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
Go and learn the meaning of the words,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Matthew 9:9-13

Matthew was a finance guy. Not only did he extort money from his neighbors while collecting taxes, he also wrapped his whole life around the security money can bring.

How many advertisements have you seen lately geared toward people considering retirement: Do you have enough money to survive after you retire? Maybe you need to invest? Buy gold or silver? Take out insurance?

Commercials and posts of this nature lead to a stabbing fear. All the what ifs begin to play on our imagination.

If there is anything we humans cling to it is security. We clutch at anything that seems dependable. We stock up on what promises to sustain us in the crises of our lives. We pour over the stock reports to see how much we have lost. We accumulate what we hope will keep us safe until we die.

How much power do I need to protect my future? What will happen to me if I don’t have extra money to squirrel away? What do I need to ensure my comfort?

Jesus invited Matthew to step out of the security he had been creating for himself into the divine world of risk. He brought him out of the tomb of self-protection into the sunlight of abandonment to divine providence.

Hear these words from the heart of Jesus said to Matthew as said to yourself and do not be afraid: “Leave everything, Matthew, and come. Come follow me. I have no money to offer you. No absolute security to promise for your future. I have nothing but my immense love for you and for the world. I have nothing but my dream for your future in my Kingdom which I have secured for you. I have known you since before the foundation of the world. Matthew [and here say your own name], I will be enough for you. Enough forever. Come. Come follow me.”

Image: Bernardo Strozzi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Praying with this Passage of Scripture

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