Pick Up Our Cross
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. Mk 8:34-35
These words are in today’s gospel. There is just such a contrast between what Jesus calls us to and what we actually see in the church. They tell us there are now 1.15 billion Catholics. How many of them have any notion of taking Jesus’ words seriously? So many people want to say they are Catholic but they just want to do the minimum. When you talk to somebody about vocations you get a lot of struggles to express this. People want to say they are Catholic but they are just not willing to consider giving that much to their faith. But Jesus’ words here and elsewhere don’t give us that option. Jesus demands to be Lord of our lives. That means lord of everything with no limits and no conditions. This means everyone. There is this idea among many Catholics that there are different levels of commitment. That you can choose to just kind of go with the flow churchwise and you will get to heaven. That total commitment is somehow optional.
Think of the word ‘vocation’. It comes from the word for calling. That is what is involved. God calls you. There is no question of whether you are willing to make the sacrifice. The assumption is that when you made you confirmation and committed you life to serve Jesus and His church that it would be on His terms and not yours. That means you gave God a blank cheque. People don’t get that. They think they just signed up to be a regular Catholic. That means different things to different people but for most it involves limits. There is just nothing in Catholic teaching that can justify this thinking but it is common.
So why don’t people understand this? Well, mostly it is because nobody tells them. Growing up protestant you hear it all the time. If Jesus is to be lord AT all he must be lord OF all. Asking for total surrender is constant. Catholics seem to be afraid of that. We are just happy if they come to mass once in a while. Never mind the fact that they are probably in a state of mortal sin. Pope Benedict has talked about a smaller and purer church. I think the quickest and most powerful way to do that would be to start preaching texts like this one.
