Homily

Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” There are four portions to this sentence. The first is, “if anyone wishes to come after me.” Of course we wish to come after Jesus. That’s why we are here today, right? We made that decision either directly and concretely at some point in time or else we took it on from our childhood accepting it as part of life without any specific moment of decision. Either way we have chosen to follow Christ. It is our intention and our desire and choice to follow Him. But I think it is never a bad idea to renew and reflect upon our choice to follow the Lord, because, as we know, it is so very easy for our good intentions and desires to become weak, or even sometimes to disappear. Those of you who are married know that on your wedding day your promise to share your life with your spouse was hot with good intentions and desire. What happened after that?

Those amazingly good desires can easily be stepped on, cooled down, distracted, pulled against and get battered by other cares and concerns and troubles in life. So I think it’s a good thing for married people to renew their desire to be married every day, even when they don’t feel like it. Especially when they don’t feel like it. Because this extraordinary relationship is at the center of your life so why would you not want it to work out as well as possible and why would you not want to continually devote yourself to making it your top priority and biggest and most important work, after your relationship with Christ. If we choose to follow Him we should also be ready again and again, to stop and renew our desire to do so. He will help us to live well in our marriage and any other state in life. On the Lenten Sunday of the Holy Cross let us tell Him once again we wish to follow Him.

Then Jesus says, “let him deny himself.” In today’s world, these words are poison. I find it so very interesting but also puzzling: people will go to the movies and admire the sacrifice of the hero in the story, the person who puts his or her life on the line for someone else, who has to go through tremendous danger and hardship in order to get some good accomplished or to save lives. People admire that kind of sacrificial action in a movie. But in real life today, for themselves? No way! What they admire on the screen often has no real connection with their own lives. Sacrifice? Deny yourself? Give something up for a greater good? Not indulge yourself? Less for me so that you can have more? What do you mean it’s not all about me? We may not be people who embrace that kind of thinking but I certainly think we are affected by it. Our natural, or should I say unnatural, inclination is to be self-centered. It’s not how God intended, but since the Garden of Eden and the free will of Adam and Eve working for self and against God, we live in a fallen world where our easiest inclination is to do the same. But to deny ourselves is not to put ourselves in a worse position, as we may often fear. It’s not to put ourselves in a worse position. To deny ourselves is to get ourselves out of the way so that we may follow Christ. Only then can we become who we were meant to be. We know how often we mess up, how often we fail. It’s a struggle, but let us still continue to work at denying ourselves so that we can succeed in Christ.

Then Jesus says, “Let him … take up his cross.” Notice Jesus does not say, “Go find a cross for yourself.” We don’t have to look on eBay or Craig’s List to find a nice one. He doesn’t tell us to look for a cross. He tells us to willingly pick up crosses that are in our lives not because suffering is good, but because suffering in this life is necessary and unavoidable. The Lord does not ask us to seek out suffering, but rather to embrace the suffering we cannot change in union with His own suffering. If we unite our own sufferings with the sufferings of Christ, we unite ourselves to Him, and the troubles and sorrows of this passing world can be carried in hope, as we look on Him Who suffered for us here on the cross, as we see today. Friday is the Annunciation. The Son of God became man to live among us, knowing that He would suffer for us.

Today one evil man and his partners are trying to crucify the people of Ukraine. Those people are carrying the heaviest of crosses and yet I know that so many of those suffering people are bravely carrying their cross in faith, not in despair, but with hope in the Lord. Our own troubles, for many of us, may be very small compared to theirs. Should we have less hope than those people who are suffering from war?

Let us not waste our troubles! Let us carry them to the Lord and if we must also continue to carry these crosses then let us do so in union with the Lord. Let us unite ourselves with our suffering brothers and sisters in the faith in Ukraine, in the hope of real victory for them, and not just victory in war, but also for victory in living for Christ, even as we pray for that same victory for ourselves. I need to remind myself again and again, that, just like our Savior, we will not carry our cross for long—but if we are faithful, then after that, there will only be life and joy.

Is Jesus Christ the most important, the most powerful, the most life-giving, the most-loving person we have in our lives? If so—then let us follow him. Not when we feel like it, but because we choose Him, every day. Not when it’s easy—because good things are usually difficult to do. Not just when we are so low that we have nowhere else to turn, because the truth is we never have any place or anyone better to turn to. Let us renew our desire today to follow Christ, as we kiss the Holy Cross. And then let’s do it again tomorrow. And let us beg Christ to help Ukraine.