By Colleen O’Sullivan
“Did anything so great ever happen
before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God
speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a
nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and
wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great
terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very
eyes? All of this you were allowed to
see that you might know the Lord is God and there is no other. (Deuteronomy
4:32b-35)
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes
to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain
the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Matthew
16:24-26)
Piety
If you want
to follow Jesus, you’d better look good on wood. (Daniel Berrigan, S.J.)
Study
Life presents each of us with an array of choices,
various paths down which we can elect to walk.
Some people pick the good times route, living from one social activity
to the next, filling their days on earth with fun and games, vacations and
partying. Others of us stroll down the
accumulation of material goods boulevard, wide enough to hold all the clothes,
cars, books, furnishings, decorations, etc. that we think will bring us
fulfillment. Then there are those who
pick the ladder to career success as the viable way to go. Or some of us take the escapist route,
choosing to dull the inevitable pains and sufferings of life with alcohol, prescription
drugs, or illegal substances.
These all turn out to be paths to nowhere. They may look attractive today, but the
satisfactions of following such human pursuits are short-lived. As Jesus points out, they are sure and
certain ways to lose our lives in the end.
Our God, however, sets before us another option,
the way of life. In today’s first
reading, Moses says to the Israelites, Have you ever seen anything like this
before? We’ve got a God who speaks to us
from the midst of fire, and we live to tell about it! We’ve got a God who loves us so much that he
rescued us from slavery in a powerful land like Egypt. It wasn’t easy, but God did it because God
loves us as only God can. Just follow
this God of ours. You’ll be on the right
path, and God will lead you in the way to go.
Jesus tells the disciples, “If you want to live,
follow me. Only don’t fool yourselves;
my way is the way of the Cross. That
will be your fate, too. But it will be
worth it in the end, and I will be with you every step of the way for all
eternity.”
God and his Son set before us the way of life, but
how many of us want to follow? In the
desert on the way to the Promised Land, our ancestors in faith sat down and
sulked. They didn’t trust God to provide
for them. They even wished they were slaves
again, because at least in Egypt they knew where their next meal was coming
from. Many of us shortsightedly would
rather make do with the things of this world than face the specter of the
Cross, any cross. We don’t fight for
justice because we don’t want to take up causes, however righteous, that might
render us unpopular with family or friends.
We don’t minister to the lepers of our day because, well, it’s more fun
to do other things.
Action
Take a few minutes to imagine yourself quietly sitting with Jesus’ body
after it’s been removed from the Cross.
Maybe you could picture yourself preparing his body for burial. Notice the wounds he willingly bore for
you. Think about the suffering leading
up to the Crucifixion that he endured out of love for you. Reflect on the many ways Jesus has shown you
his love all throughout your life.
There’s something about doing this that makes me realize how much I love
Jesus and how much I want to be with him.
All the other paths available to me lose their attraction. No one seeks a cross, but why would I go out
of my way to avoid one when I see what my Savior was willing to go through for
me?
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