Carrying One’s Cross: 24th Sunday of Ordinary

The gospel for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time can be metamorphic to school, right? We see the great teacher giving his apostles an important lesson. This lesson would be repeated over and over again. It is that of love.

He begins with an important question. It can be something from a pop quiz. He asks them to identify who he is. After a few differentiating answers, St. Peter would respond correctly by saying he is the Christ.

After Peter’s affirmative answer, Jesus would foretell his passion, death, and resurrection. Peter would rebuke him, but the influence of Satan was in their midst as Christ challenged him to think like God and not like humans do.

As the passage ends, he challenges his disciples and followers, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it."

Christ is teaching us that the cross is of God, and every Catholic is called to embrace it. When Satan tempts us, we see death, grief, torture, and defeat. When God is present, we see life and his love that will become one.

Christ is present in us. We can emulate him in our daily encounters with others. It is through Christ that we know how to love others. We learn how to give ourselves to others through him.

Pope Benedict XVI reminds us, “Indeed, we must do all we can to overcome suffering, but to banish it from the world altogether is not in our power. This is simply because we are unable to shake off our finitude and because none of us is capable of eliminating the power of evil…. Only God is able to do this: only a God who personally enters history by making himself man and suffering within history.”

The late pope reminds us that God has conquered evil. He wants to accompany us on our spiritual journey. Remember that no one will suffer alone. We are in it together.  

When we embrace the cross of our lives, we unite with Christ on the same hill that he died upon.