 |
|
| To carry one’s cross |
|
| |
|
“Who cares more for his/her father or his/her mother than for me, is not worthy of me”
“Who cares more for his/her son or his/her daughter than for me, is not worthy of me” (Mathew 10,37) |
|
| |
|
These words are surprising. Would it be contempt towards the family? The text following it increases our confusion: it is only about renunciation:
“ Who does not take one’s cross and does not follow me, is not worthy of me, who wants to keep one’s life for oneself will lose it, who will lose one’s life because of me will keep it” |
|
| |
|
 |
The extreme character of these words by Jesus can be misunderstood and could lead to some caricatures of God: a detrimental God, a God of power and a distant God, exterior to the human sphere. Even the expression “take one’s cross” is a source of misunderstanding. Does it mean a search for suffering? Would God be jealous of our human pleasures? |
|
|
| |
|
It is how Jesus was living that can make us understand these statements. Jesus during his human life showed a great liberty regarding what he was asking to his disciples. For him God is not a dominating power but God is love, a love given to us. The greatness for Jesus was not to dominate but to serve. The only greatness for him is to devote one’s self to serve. One can see that Jesus was not dependent on anything or anybody. All in him was generosity. He was not keeping his life for himself; he has given it every day. His liberty was an example for those he was meeting, and at their turn they became liberated. Jesus’ values governing his choices were: equal dignity for all human beings, individual freedom, emancipation of women, priority of the person above the group, justice and sharing, separation between politics and religion, non-violence, love of one’s neighbour up to the point to forgive and care for one’s enemy.
Jesus’ action is liberation and an expression of the infinite love of God.
How can we not want to follow the same way of living as this man from Nazareth and experiment his liberation?
But Jesus warned us: “ Who does not take one’s cross and does not follow me…” |
|
| |
|
 |
Jesus did not make the choice of the cross; the cross will be the consequence of his choices. These choices were inspired by love.
He never chose to suffer but to love. |
|
|
| |
|
To follow Jesus is to act like Jesus, this implies to lose any spirit of possession including towards one’s own family. By lack of generosity, we may become blind to the need of the others and also blind to God, the Other. True the loss of some kind of possession brings a suffering; however this favours a conversion that is an intimate discovery of the presence of God in every body
God is not external to ourselves, he is inside us, lively present, intimately engaged in our own life. |
|
| |
|
Lose one’s life to behave like Jesus gives an awareness of the presence of God in our intimate life. Our life is not anymore dependent; we experiment a liberation, a burst of eternal life. We lose our life to find it back transformed: a life given day by day.
Where there is love, we can go very far, till the end. |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
