“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
We live in a death-denying society and culture. Pain and discomfort are avoided at all costs. Instant gratification seems to be the mantra of the present moment.
The perennial message of our Lenten pilgrimage could not be further from that reality. It is paradoxically, the message of the Master that challenges us to embrace denial of self and embrace the cross in our life. It would be cynical to conclude that this was merely the ravings of a masochistic eccentric 1st century Jewish preacher. Rather, Jesus touches the wisdom of the ages when he challenges us to embrace the discipline that has brought abundant life to women and men of varied religious traditions down through the ages.
That wisdom is realized every time we risk letting go and giving of ourselves to another in love and forgiveness. It is realized in the simple gestures of compassion that we offer to one another each day. It is experienced in the sacrificial love of spouses or dear friends who tend to the final days of their beloved in unfailing tenderness. The cross is there for us to daily embrace and in so doing, to experience the transformation that Resurrection promises.