Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
This Sunday in Rome, our Holy Father will be canonizing two new saints, numbering them among the great cloud of holy ones that that have attained their ultimate triumph as Christians, Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. While born in the 20th century, Carlo Acutis is considered the first saint of the new millennium. Both saints died at a young ago having suffered the debilitating effects of cancer and polio. The parents of Carlo Acutis and his siblings will be present for this incredible event.
Carlo Acutis contracted a form of leukemia and died at 15 and Pier Frassati contracted polio and died at 24. Yet, both Acutis and Frassati who otherwise were quite normal in living and loving their Catholic faith, understood well the admonish of the Lord in the Gospel of Mark today: whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
My friends, the journey of every Christian marked with the dying and rising of Christ in Baptism is to live the ordinary in extraordinary ways. Each of us is called to use the unique gifts that God has given us to reveal and disclose our truest identity as sisters and brothers of Christ. That identity will inevitably involve the cross. And that cross can come to us in many forms, illness, loneliness, loss of a job, feelings of desolation over the loss of a loved one, various forms of depression and anxiety that often go undiagnosed. The cross can come into our lives in many and various forms.
For Christ, however, the cross was not a sign of defeat but rather a symbol of triumph and so too for us who are willing to live the life that we bear as Christians. For both Sts. Acutis and Frassati, their cross became the path to glory, not in some masochistic way but rather in their identification with the one who hung upon it. For Christ, death on the cross would not have the last say in his life but rather would lead to the triumph of Resurrection that awaits all who follow the path of Jesus.