Take up your cross?
What does it mean for us to take up our cross and follow Jesus? Is there more to the story than self-denial?
The following homily was preached to the student brothers during Compline. You can listen here or read below:
Reading: Luke 9:22-25
What does it mean for us to take up our cross and follow Jesus? The obvious meaning is that discipleship requires self-denial. As Christians, we are all called to imitate Christ; and in exercising self-denial, we take up our crosses figuratively, imitating our Lord who took up his cross physically. This reading of the text is familiar to us; indeed, it is a correct meaning. But is it the only meaning?
I think it is interesting that our Lord first says ‘taking up your cross’ before saying ‘follow me’ – especially because our Lord only takes up his own cross towards the end of his earthly ministry, at a point when his disciples have already been following him for a while. If the goal is for us to imitate him, would it not make more sense for the ‘following’ to come before ‘taking up the cross’?
Perhaps – just maybe – what is being suggested to us is a particular kind of ‘following’ – one that follows what our Lord does after he takes up his cross: his journey to Golgotha with the cross.
Each Lent, the Church invites us to meditate on this Way of the Cross; and we do this by praying the fourteen stations. In many places and customs, when we pray the stations of the cross, we often also process from one station to the next, and in this way we symbolically journey with our Lord along the Way of the Cross. But what if today’s gospel passage is also inviting us to make this journey with Christ in a less symbolic and more literal way?
Our Lord stood unjustly accused and condemned – what if I could patiently bear injustices committed against me, not because of some sense of pacifism nor because it is wrong to defend myself, but simply because I want to be more like Christ whom I love dearly?
Our Lord prayed for his persecutors – what if I could pray daily for my enemies, for those whose interests are aligned against mine?
Our Lord comforted his blessed mother and the women of Jerusalem – what if I could look beyond my own concerns and troubles, and bring comfort and consolation to others who suffer and mourn?
Our Lord was stripped of his clothing and was humiliated – what if I could let God strip me of my pride and self-importance? What if I could learn to see my Lord’s face in those of the poor and destitute?
Our Lord went willingly to his death, offering his life to his Father – in my final moments on this earth, could I meet my death willingly? Could I, like my Saviour, make of my whole life and death an offering to God? Could I unite my offering with Christ’s offering on the cross, which was the greatest act of worship this world has ever seen?
“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” [John 14:5-6]. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” [John 6:68]. Help me, Lord, to follow you until the end.
Image: 5th Station – Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross, by Aelred Whitacre OP in the Priory of the Holy Spirit (aka Blackfriars), Oxford. Photo credit: Fr Lawrence Lew OP
