Taking Up Your Cross

It appears that this letter may become the extension of last week’s homily.  Each one of us suffers. Each 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?

Why do we need to carry the cross?  Simply answering, because we are disciples of Christ. Easy to say, but difficult to be, right? The most common reasons for giving up the practice of the faith are not intellectual but moral. People know that to follow Christ would subvert their plans, which are often mercenary and vain-glorious, and would mean saying no to themselves in certain things.

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.’ (Rom 6:4) At Baptism we let go of the old life of 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 God.

Christ did not choose the way of ease or evasion. He chose the way of self-sacrifice and suffering. It wasn’t that he was in love with suffering. No. 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.

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 travelled it. A bright light illuminates it. And it does not end at Calvary, but at Easter.

-Fr. John Kim