February 26, 2004
Lent 2004: Unwavering Focus on God
Luke 9:23-25. And He said to all, "If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?"This first verse is one we’ve all heard and considered. However, I think most put the emphasis on carrying the cross (which is important) and lose the word “daily” in this message. We aren’t called to “carry the cross” at tough times in our lives or just 10% of the time; we are called to carry the cross daily. We often think of taking a day off or going on vacation as an escape from the world, which is fine. However, we are not to take a day off from carrying our cross for Christ. The Navarre Bible points to St. Jerome:
Not only in time of persecution or when we have the chance of martyrdom, but in all circumstances, in everything we do and think, in everything we say, let us deny what we used to be and let us confess what we now are, reborn as we have been in Christ ("Epistola" 121, 3).We are truly a new creation in Christ. And we are not of this world. This means that we as Christians suffer greatly and Jesus is calling us to suffer on a daily basis. The next verse underlines the importance of this: “whoever loses his life for My sake, he will save it.” We do not need to suffer martyrdom to lose our lives. Rather, we must simply give up the materialistic enjoyments of our age to suffer with Christ. Each day we can pummel our bodies and refuse our desires in order to conform our desires to Christ. We can also conform through the three ‘pillars’ of Lent: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.
This is a hard lesson indeed.
God bless,
Jay
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