Homilies | Father Nathan

Father Nathan | Homily

Today’s Readings for Mass During the Day:

First Reading — 2 KGS 4:8-11, 14-16A

Responsorial Psalm — PS 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19

For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

Second Reading — ROM 6:3-4, 8-11

Gospel Reading — MT 10:37-42

Take up your cross and follow me…

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life^[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

– MT 16:24-26

Dear Friends!

Anyone who doesn’t take up his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me.  

— MT 10:38

Each one of us has a cross to carry. There is no need to make one or to look for one. The cross we have is hard enough for us. But are we willing to take it up, to accept it as our cross?

Jesus took up his cross.

What we have to do is take up the cross. Our cross is made not of wood but of our burdens, worries, and problems, illnesses, conflict with our families, or sometimes our own weaknesses. Perhaps there is no big cross, only a multiplicity of the little crosses.  However, enough drops eventually fill the cup to overflowing.

The cross we carry may not even be visible to others. IT may not be an outward thing but an inward thing, such as depression or grief. There are heavy crosses though we cannot weigh them on a scales.

The most painful cross of all, however, is the one in which we have no choice. For example, the cross of living with a difficult person. It is a lot easier to choose a cross for oneself than to accept the one that comes, so to speak, in the line of duty.

Over and above these crosses, which come to everyone, are the crosses that come to us because we are disciples of Christ. The most common reason for giving up the practice of faith is not intellectual but moral. People know that to follow Christ would subvert their plan, which is often mercenary and vain-glorious, and would mean saying no to themselves in certain things.

In baptism, we were buried with Christ

— St. Paul Rom 6:4; Col 2:12

Following Christ involves a dying to self. This process of dying to self begins at baptism. St. Paul compares baptism to death. “In baptism, we were buried with Christ” At baptism, we let go of the old life to sin, and became a new creature able to live in the freedom of the children of God. This is, of course, a lifelong process which we can embark on, and persevere in, only with the grace of Christ.

But the purpose of this death is resurrection. The death of the old, sin-ridden self-results in the birth of a new self, modeled on Christ. The person who selfishly grasps at personal fulfillment will only see it slip through his fingers, while the one sacrifices himself for Jesus will find true fulfillment.

Christ did not choose the way to ease or evasion. He chose the way of self-sacrifice and suffering. It was not that he was in love with suffering.  No, never at all. It was because he chose the way of love. And Love inevitably results in suffering. But then love is the ONLY thing that makes suffering bearable and fruitful.

We are saved NOT by Christ’s suffering but by HIS love.

And it was through his suffering that he attained to glory. If we suffer with him on earth we will be crowned with him in heaven.

The road of suffering is a narrow and difficult one. It is a great comfort for us to know that Christ, the innocent and sinless one, has gone down this road before us, and gone down it to the end. This road is not the same since he traveled it. A bright light illuminates it. And it does not end at the Calvary but at Easter.

Amen

Have a Blessed Week,

Fr. Nathan