"WHOEVER WISHES TO COME AFTER ME MUST DENY
HIMSELF, TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME."
HIMSELF, TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME."
The theme this Sunday reminds us of the duty, which all of us have, to take up our cross and carry it in the footsteps of Christ. This is not something that we do with pleasure, for the cross always entails some degree of suffering and death.
We instinctively choose life and tend to enjoy life. And yet, the cross looms large on the horizon of our earthly existence. It may be the cross of sickness, of natural defects, of failures, or of injustices inflicted on us.
Or it may be the cross of living out the demands of our faith. Or it is the cross of bearing with one another’s shortcomings within our own family, in our place of work, in our communities.
In this Eucharist let us ask for the grace to carry our cross with patience and in a spirit of faith, always remembering that the cross is the great bridge to heaven.
Today we also pray in a special manner for our grandparents as we celebrate Grandparents’ Day.
Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Christ!” Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this Jesus turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 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.”
