Inspired by writing of Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Brothers and Sisters,
As Christians we all have a cross
to carry. Each of you living your faith is carrying your cross.
But our Cross is not always easy
to carry. Two thousand years
ago, Jesus told his disciples, " Whoever wishes to follow me, must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." We carry the cross of our faith given to us by Jesus.
It would be a lot easier to carry that cross if it was just a wooden beam. But, we are also nailed on that cross. Nailed
as a,
§ spouse,
§
parent,
§
child,
§
sibling
Nailed with us is,
§
who we are, who we love, who we are attracted to
§
our joys, happiness, hopes, victories,
§
our defeats, troubles, suffering, addictions, pains
Nailed to that cross - all that we are.
This was Peter. He looked at himself and what
God was asking him to do, then he had a better idea. Jesus reminded him your
are not thinking as God, “deny yourself - get behind me Satan.” The cross is not easy to carry because it is our cross
that we carry. Like Peter, it is hard to deny who we are and we drop the
cross. Like our Lord, some pick the cross back up and carry on.
I recently read an article by woman; i’ll use
her initials MJ. MJ is a writer and
calls herself a humanist celebrant. As a
humanist she believes in the world and in humanity, but not in God.
MJ is a former nun who worked with Mother
Theresa for 20 years in the Sisters of Charity. She writes for a national blog
and in a recent post had an article on The Humanist Creed.
In it she says there is no God, she says that
Christians believe in a God who is nothing more than an invisible wizard in the
sky that grants wishes. MJ writes - Jesus
was just a man crucified and like you and me that when he died he was dead and
no more.
How could a woman who was a bride of Christ,
speak so evil of the Catholic and Christian faith, her former beliefs? If you read her background, you will soon
understand how.
In her story, she outlines she entered the
order as a 19 year old. She was educated
and lived in the Mother house of her order in NYC. Here the things of the world
started to become more important than her faith. Her own desires for worldliness allowed her
to forsake her vows and the needs of others. In her own words, she outgrew her
faith and then she said she outgrew God.
She dropped her cross. It became too heavy.
In today’s first reading
But it wasn’t, Jeremiah was laughed at and
mocked. I think Jeremiah may have been heading to the same place as MJ; except,
Jeremiah did not loose his faith.
Yet, people are carrying their cross even today.
They live a faith in the fact that on the Cross - Jesus died for our sins. And for this, they are being martyred; killed
because they follow Christ, and his cross. They are driven from their homes,
because they are denying themselves and following their savior who died for
them. It would be so much easier if they
didn’t have to carry that cross, if they just dropped it an ran.
It’s not easy following Christ.
It’s not easy carrying your cross.
If you work for peace, people will call you a
coward or unpatriotic. If you stand up
for the poor then you are called naive or something even worse here in Northeast Louisiana - a liberal.
If you work for peace, like Martin Luther King,
Jr. In the United States, or strive for justice like Archbishop Oscar Romero and
the martyred religious sisters in central america
- Sr. Ita Ford, Sr. Dorothy Kazel, Sr. Maura Clarke, and Sr. Jean Donovan; the
enemies of peace and justice will kill you.
All those who truly carry the cross, pray that
God will fill our hearts with love and increase our faith.
We may not realize it, each of us
living your faith is carrying the cross. The cross of Christianity is quickly becoming martyred to the
humanism and the relativism of the “if it feels good so just do it world.”
We see it all around us, in some places:
§
Symbols
of Christian faith are prohibited in
a public square
§
Christian
prayer is prohibited in school, and
§
Saying
bless you when someone sneezes, gets you in trouble.
We are laughed at by the stars of the media. They
mock us in the public. And in all of this, true loving Christians are accused
of hate, bigotry and prejudice.
But those who carry the cross feel like
Jeremiah, “your word is a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones.”
In the cross that we take up, we are made
stronger.
The cross that Jesus bore and we take up is truly
a mystery. It is the cross:
§
By
which time is measured, starting with the birth of a baby.
§
That
a teacher named Jesus died on;
o People organize their entire lives around him even
if they don’t believe.
§
That
gives us a deeper understanding
o Of our God,
o God’s grace and
o Our faith.
§
That
is a symbol of our redemption and salvation.
§
That
is the ultimate symbol
o Of the depth Christian life, love, fidelity, morality,
and faith.
The cross is not and idea like math that follows
simplyerules. It is a mystery that is not found in 1 + 1 = 2. It is the mystery
of the infinite.
This is the mystery of God; so deep, that people
of the world, who seek understanding in human limitations, cannot grasp it. And,
they drop their cross like the humanist celebrant MJ.
This is the mystery of God; so deep, that
people of faith, who seek understanding through Christ, grow in their faith. Their
life’s missions becomes to carry the cross, even to their death, like MLK Jr.,
Archbishop Oscar Romero, the Martyred Sisters in central america, and the Christians
in Iraq
Do we grasp Jesus’ command to carry our
cross? Can we understand the mystery of
God? Neither is easy to explain.
Maybe Paul’s letter to the romans explains the carrying of our cross; we become the living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to god. We are
transformed. Our minds are renewed, we become more and we begin to understand.
I like to think of our Savior as he walked with
his cross. Walking in the direction God
sends us, even if we fall and drop our cross; our gracious God will let us pick
it back up. When it becomes so great a
burden, God will send us help to carry it and make us stronger.
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