I wish that I could stand here and tell you that discipleship comes easily, but that would be a lie. Jesus does not say follow after me and all will go as you desire. Rather He is truthful with His disciples when He states: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
Who truly wants to live these words and yet to enter into the sacramental life of the Church is to embrace these words. To enter into the life giving waters of baptism does not mean that you will never struggle with faith. To make a good confession does not mean that you will walk away to never be tempted again. To enter into marriage does not mean that everyday will be perfect bliss. To receive our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion does not mean that all will go as you desire. To be anointed does not mean that you will never struggle with the reality of pain and death.
We want to live in a world where things come easily and when we don’t get what we want as quickly as we wish we simply disengage. It is easy for the road to get difficult and thus we simply give up and turn back. Jesus teaches us that there is value to be found through the cross. Yet who here truly wants to follow the Stations of the Cross which outline this church by taking up Christ’s path and taking up the weight of the cross for themselves?
To think of the horror that was on the mind of the disciples when they heard this statement from the lips of our Blessed Lord. Everyday they were faced with the knowledge of crucifixion and thus they could vividly call to mind this cruel instrument of death. They did not know the cross as a pendant worn around one’s neck, but instead they knew it for the pain and agony which is brought into the life of the one who will be claimed by its grasp. Who would want to embrace such as instrument of torture?
To carry the cross is a sick and twisted punishment. Firstly one would be beat as they were whipped and their skin was ripped open. Then they were forced to carry the cross bar which would be balanced upon their shoulders while their arms were tied to this beam weighing roughly 75-125 pounds. To fall would not be easy because there would be no way to brace one’s fall as they plummeted face first into the ground. Yes, to carry the cross is not a pretty image and yet to carry the cross is a life giving reality for Christ has sanctified the cross through His sacrificial action upon it.
To be Christian is not to follow after a Gospel of prosperity, but it is to reach out and embrace what our Lord has done for us. To be a Christian is to see value in the cross of our Blessed Lord and to be willing to embrace it for ourself. Again discipleship does not come easily, but that is okay because we are not left alone. Instead to embrace the cross is to embrace Jesus in His pains and suffering and to find meaning in the midst of our own pain and suffering.
