Sunday 23, Year C
4th September 2022
Ws 9:13-18
Philémon 9b-10.12-17
Lk 14:25-33
A priest who had specialised in working with teenagers in difficulty was walking late one evening in the streets of Paris with a youth. They arrived near a little chapel which was obviously closed at that hour of the night. But low windows made it possible to see the sanctuary lamp. The priest stopped for a moment of silent adoration. When he resumed his walk, his companion asked for an explanation. The priest told him that he believed that Jesus was present in the tabernacle. He had stopped to adore Him and to tell Him his love. To which the young man replied: “If what you tell me is true – that the God who loves you and whom you love is present there – why don’t you spend all your time in that place?”
This young chap had gone to the heart of the Gospel. If God is there, if God is accessible, if God is inviting us to a dialogue of love, then all things, all people can only come second after Him. Jesus expresses it in the hyperbolic style of His culture: “If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” This is not something for monks and nuns only. None of us can be excused. Jesus wants to be first in our hearts: first in our lives, first in our daily choices. Jesus first: this does not mean that we cease to love others, but we prefer Jesus. Saint Cyprian puts it wonderfully: “Let us prefer absolutely nothing to Christ because He preferred absolutely nothing to us.” We have been divinely loved; we are absolutely loved. This is the basis of our faith. Jesus saved us because He loved us. The Father sent His Son out of love for the world. The more we give Jesus the first place in our lives, the more we become like Him, the more we are able to give a greater love, a truer and diviner love to all, beginning with our dear ones.
Hence the mention of the cross: “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” Jesus’ cross is where His and the Father’s love for us were made manifest. Jesus preferred absolutely nothing to us, not even His own life. The Father preferred absolutely nothing to us, not even His own Son. Our love for Christ, our preference for Christ, must therefore take the form of the cross. Between Jesus’ cross and my cross, there is something like a dialogue of love. When I take my cross, when I am on the cross, Jesus comes first, God comes first, I begin to love as I have been loved. I abide in Jesus’ love.
One could ask, what is this cross? What makes my cross? Often, when we speak of our crosses we think of our sufferings. These can in the body or in the mind, in relationships, in the family, at work, in society, in my country, and so on. They are mine because they touch me – sometimes in a way which is known to all; often, though, in a hidden way which attracts neither attention nor compassion. All these sufferings can become crosses which we ‘take’ when we link them through faith with Jesus’ sufferings on His cross. They can become our little -or bigger- contribution to His loving sufferings for the redemption of the world.
Jesus, though, suggests another dimension when He declares: “Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple”. This is a more active way of understanding the place of the cross in our lives. I take my cross each time I renounce something, even that which is good in itself, for the sake of Jesus. Often, this will mean that I have to say ‘No’. Of course I have to say No to temptations: No to this useless pleasure, No to my anger or to my pride. But we are invited to say No to good things, too. This is what we call a ‘sacrifice’. This can happen in very small things or in bigger ones: I renounce changing my car in order to be able to give to the poor; I renounce a small innocent pleasure out of love for Christ. The Saints show us through their lives that the cross becomes a way of infinite growth in love.
To sum up: Sometimes we are crucified by the very circumstances of our life and personal history: then we take up our cross by exerting patience. At other times, we crucify ourselves by practising renouncement which always consists in saying No to what is secondary so that my love for what comes first can grow. The sacrifice is a No for a Yes: a No to a little thing for a Yes to the one thing necessary.
If what we profess and celebrate during this Mass is true – that Jesus gives Himself up for us on the altar – why don’t we take up our cross out of love for the One who loved us and gave Himself up for us – and for the whole world? Yes, we shall choose once more Jesus first.