In today’s gospel, Jesus says to his disciples: Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. These are the requirements to be true disciples of Jesus. Today we are called to talk and reflect about that. I think from time to time we need to ask ourselves what it means to be dynamic Christians, Catholic! From time to time we need to check our spirituality: our relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters. Because we are Catholics, we are baptized people, we read the Scripture every day. We received the sacraments, we pray every day, we attend Mass and we keep the 10 commandments of God. We are happy people. Happy in what we do. That is fine. But we need to ask ourselves if we are doing what we are supposed to do as Christians. We need to examine our lives and see if we really live what we profess. We need to see how we can reflect Jesus in our actions. And today’s readings can help us to reflect about the requirements to be true disciples of JesusIn fact, last week, when Jesus asked His apostles who do they say that I am? Peter gave the right answer when he said that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus praised Peter for discovering that.
Today’s gospel is the continuation of what we read last week. Jesus explained to his apostles what means to be Messiah. That the Messiah should suffer, be crucified, die … When Peter heard that, he opposed, he reacted against that idea. He could not understand that the suffering, the cross is the way of salvation. He could not understand that being Messiah means to sacrifice himself for the sake of the good news. That is why Jesus took this opportunity to tell Peter and others that they should deny themselves, take up their cross and follow his example. In saying that, Jesus was telling his disciples that if they wanted to follow Him they should put the needs of others first and be prepared to face suffering even death. They should sacrifice themselves. They should love what He loves and do what He does. Jesus did not only tell them but He gave them the example by His life, death, crucifixion and resurrection.
This is a challenging message. This message is also for us. It is a challenge for us. Jesus is challenging us. Because we live in materialistic and self-centered world. We often hear people say: It is my money, my car, my car. I deserve what I have because I work hard. I worked twelve hours a day. It is my time, my treasure. It is for me and for my family. In our culture (Nowadays) we are used to being attached to the things we have. However, in the midst of this situation, to deny ourselves means to detach ourselves from what we are and what we have in order to put the needs of others first. Jesus wants us to detach ourselves from ideas, from our security, from our comfort, from our interests, from our pleasure, ourselves for the sake of the kingdom if we want to be His disciples. That means we have to give up our tendency to dominate and to impose our ideas and opinions to others. That means we have to give our tendency to be in control of everything. That means we have to give up our tendency to be the center of the attention.
Now, what are you going to sacrifice for the sake of the gospel? Can you sacrifice some of your time in order to visit a homeless shelter or soup kitchen this week? Can you sacrifice your need to be in control and let Jesus do with you whatever he wants? Can other people see who is Jesus by the way I treat them? My brothers and sisters being a Christian it is not just praying or keeping the commandments of God. Being Christian, being a true disciple of Jesus means to give up our ego (die in ourselves), be compassionate and concerned more about the needs of others. You must be more concerned about the people who need your help than your own comfort. You must be more concerned about people who need your service then your need. You must be more concerned about people who need your generosity and compassion. Because following Jesus is something radical. When we follow the total aspect of His person and life. There is no room for pick and choose mentality here. This attitude will never make us His true disciples. Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
