Take up your Cross and Follow me

As youngsters we were told more than one to bear our cross.  Sometimes we meet a coworker, neighbor, or even a family member, and we consider them our cross in life.  The Gospel today reminds us that our 'taking up our cross,' has little to do with the arbitrary inconvenience and hardships that we have to faced on a regular basis. The cross is instead a learning instrument for us.

The Disciples will again and again misunderstand what it means to live as true followers of Jesus.  The Profession of Faith by Peter shows that he is, at least for a moment, able to let go of the shallow understanding of being an understanding.  Power, glory, and kingship are not based on what the world offers, but rather a divine model which takes responsibility for what it has received.

Jesus shows his intense love for humanity by his care and compassion towards all of those he meets.  But even more so his real suffering and death on the cross teaches us the importance of being spilled out on behalf of others.  Living with others habits or weakness is not the kind of suffering that the cross is about.  But when we choose to forgive an injury, console the dying, encourage one with and addiction, then we begin to lift up that cross.

To be sure our life is to be formed by the image and likeness of the cross.  God is first and foremost in our lives, and we respond to the needs and concerns of others, and uphold and maintain our own dignity as well. The ability to respect life and to make choices which demonstrate a profound faithfulness, then we start to imitate the flavor of the cross of Jesus Christ.

The cross of Jesus calls us to a new and perfect relationship with him.  What is lacking in our life is made up in the suffering of the cross.