Give us this day, Lord, our daily cross.
August 18 2019: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A French proverb says, “A man who is afraid of suffering
suffers from fear itself.”
From cross to glory, the fate of the prophet.
Human life is a succession of sufferings and joys, crosses
and glories. We cannot dream of a life without sufferings, trials,
misunderstandings and the like. But all these, when faced positively and with
faith, lead to a greater glory.
What is said of human life applies as well to spiritual life.
One cannot dream that, because he has chosen to belong to Christ, he won’t face
or experience anymore hardships or trials. Actually, the more one embraces the Lord’s
way, the more heavier will his crosses become. Because, Christianity is the
religion of the cross. The Lord would even say, “Whoever wants to be my
disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke
9:23). What he means here is to be ready to face all kind of trials and
persecutions, if we want to be his followers. Whoever seeks Jesus without the
cross, will surely find the cross without Jesus. The cross was the fate of
Jesus. It has been the fate of the prophets and it is the fate that expect
every good followers of Christ. No one can truly be a prophet without be
confronted to trials, rejections and persecutions.
The liturgy of this 20th Sunday in the Ordinary Time
C portrays the prophet and the Lord’s followers as bothersome people. In the
first reading we hear about the Prophet Jeremiah and his trials. He was hated
and wished dead because of his prophecies. The leaders of the people saw in him
a man who was, according to them, not seeking the welfare of the people, but
their destruction. It is evident that, the truth always hurts the sensitivity
of evildoers.
One great hope, however, is that the Lord never abandons his
anointed into the hands of his oppressors. That was the case of Jeremiah. In the
midst of his hardships, God raises Ebed-Melech, a court official, to approach
the king and plead for his life. The prophet was falsely accused of desertion
and dissension, and God will save him from the death pit.
In many aspects, the Prophet Jeremiah stands as the prefiguration
of Christ. From his trials to his glory, he foreshadows what will be the life
of Jesus and that of his followers: Hatred, misunderstanding, plots, but after
all, the glorification.
The Gospel of this Sunday gives us the same message of
suffering and separation or division. The Lord Jesus prophesizes about his own
fate. Literally, he will be baptized on the cross with God’s wrath, as he bears
the sins of the world. Jesus came to bring separation, division between the old
and the new. What he means through these words is that, the good news he
brought about will divide entire families, setting unbelieving members against
the believing ones.
As Christ followers, we must not be afraid of divisions
caused by the word of God. It is actually integral part of our new identity,
that, by choosing to belong to Christ, we will consequently be opposed to the
way of the world. Therefore, the tough words of Jesus, “I have come to set the
earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with
which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to
establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division…”
Christian life or followership of Jesus is a journey towards
perfection. No one, however, can undertake that journey without cutting off
with the old. As analogy, a tree does not renew its leaves without losing the
old ones. So also, anybody who truly embraces the way of Jesus and becomes a
genuine announcer of the word of God, musts be ready to do away with the oldness
and be confronted to persecutions.
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews, nevertheless,
exhorts us to keep strong in our race towards perfection. Like athletes, we
have to “persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our
eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.” By enduring patiently
our destiny, we will, like Jesus, win the crown of glory.
As Jesus, in the Gospel, told to his disciples, so too we are
assured in the Letter to the Hebrews, that trials and hardships are imminent. “In
your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding
blood.” We will face the heavier and heavier crosses. Because, that is part of
our belonging to Christ. The gold does not turn into a precious pearl without
passing through the fire. We will not be genuine disciples of Christ without
the crosses. In that sense, Saint Luigi Orione will have the more inspiring
words. He says to his spiritual children, “We certainly did not become
religious to enjoy ourselves, but to obtain merits for eternity, to follow
Christ, in daily self-denial, to embrace our cross for the love of God, that
is, to suffer with Jesus Christ here, so as to triumph tomorrow, with Christ,
on the other side.” (Letters of DO, Volume II, Buenos Aires, 7th August 1935).
The cross is the door toward glory. Without the crosses, the kingdom of glory is
a fortress without gate, therefore unreachable. Give us this day, Lord, our daily cross.
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