27th of February

Gospel text

(Lk 9,22-25): 

Jesus said, «The Son of Man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the elders and chief priests and teachers of the Law, and put to death. Then after three days he will be raised to life». Jesus also said to all the people, «If you wish to be a follower of mine, deny yourself and take up your cross each day, and follow me. For if you choose to save your life, you will lose it, and if you choose to lose your life for my sake, you will save it. What does it profit you to gain the whole world while you destroy or damage yourself?».

The Application

The Lenten season is always considered as entering into a desert like experience, associating it with penance, sacrifices, fasting, etc. Entering into the desert like experience, I share it without any hesitation. However, associating this desert like experience with penance, and suffering, I would hesitate to accept it in its totality, provided, these penance and pains that we assume in our daily life, do help us to take us one level up towards God, towards the perfection of holiness.

The desert experience is the courage to be alone, be alone with Christ. Many of us refuse to take this way of life, being alone is terrible. In fact, it is by wilfully allowing to disconnect ourselves from the extra unnecessary accessories of life that we enter in direct contact with the Lord. It is in this desert life, in our own pains and suffering, when we find alone, that our encounter with God becomes very rich, sincere and wonderful. Thus such desert life, a life in the darkness, will certainly lead us towards the Light, the Light of the Lord.

Renouncing oneself, is taking the original self with us, and venturing into the desert, to be alone with the Lord. A moment of joy and grace.  Once we have taken this as a daily cross of life (emptying oneself), every moment of our daily life, become a rich moment of contemplation and this listening to the will of God, will help us to choose the life. In our own freedom, we engage in accomplishing this will, by obeying the divine commandment of love. Isn’t it by dying that we choose to reborn?

Action of the day: Learn to take the daily cross.

«If you wish to be a follower of mine, deny yourself and take up your cross each day, and follow me»

Fr. Josep Mª MASSANA i Mola OFM
(Barcelona, Spain)

Today is the first Thursday of Lent. The ashes our Church laid yesterday on our forehead are still fresh; and are meant to remind us of a forty days journey. In the Gospel, Jesus, shows us two routes: the way of the cross he must undergo, and our own way to follow him.

His path is the Way of the Cross and that of death, but also that of His Glory: «The Son of Man must suffer many things (...), and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. » (Lk 9:22). The route we must take is, essentially, the same one Jesus took, and He shows us how to follow it: «If any man would come after Me...» (Lk 9:23).

Hugging his Cross, Jesus complied with the Will of His Father; as for us, carrying ours on our shoulders, we follow him in his Way of the Cross.

The path of Jesus is summarized in three words: suffering, dying, raising from the dead. Three aspects constitute our own footpath too (two attitudes and the essence of our Christian vocation): Self-Denial, taking up our cross every day of our life and following Jesus.

If we do not deny ourselves and do not take up our cross, we are only seeking to affirm and be ourselves; we want «to save our life», as Jesus says. Yet, by wanting to save it, we will lose it. On the other hand, those who, because of Jesus, will not strive to avoid their suffering and the cross, will save their lives. It is the resulting paradox of our following Jesus: «For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?» (Lk 9:25).

Our Lord's words, closing today's Gospel, tremendously shook Saint Ignatius and sparked off his conversion: «What would happen if I would do just as saint Francis and saint Dominic did?». If only, in this Lent, the same words would help us to reach our conversion, too...!