How to "take up his cross" ?

Monday 31 May 2021

How to "take up his cross" ?

"If anyone wants to follow me, let him abandon himself, take up his cross every day and follow me." Luke 9:23

When Jesus called men and women to follow Him, He turned their lives upside down. Their plans, their dreams, the goals they pursued in life vanished overnight. As they lived in His company, they increasingly realized that they could no longer turn back, unless they left Him for good. Following Jesus was not a part-time vocation. It was a total, absolute commitment to obey Him all the way. Some could not accept it and moved away from Jesus. Most of the disciples then did not realize how far this commitment would take them. If you had told Peter, James or the others that they would die a violent death, like their Master, they would surely have thought you were exaggerating. Rather, their ideal was to be with Jesus when He finally entered His kingdom and enjoy His glory. But they were already walking in the shadow of the cross, symbol of a humiliating death as much as cruel and heavy with suffering. Notice the difference between the cross on which Jesus ascended and the cross that He asked His disciples to carry : Jesus ascended it only once, but He asked them and us to carry it every day. The cross of Jesus was raised on Mount Golgotha, near Jerusalem. The one we should wear is in our home, at the office in which we work, or the classroom where we teach... It stands before us, whenever we have to bear witness to our faith, or make a decision that will make us unpopular, or refuse to go to a place where Jesus would not want us to be. John Henry Newman wrote : “Taking the cross of Christ on our shoulders is not about performing a strong, spectacular, and unique action. Rather, it consists in the ever-recommencing practice of small actions of no great importance, but which upset us or displease our original nature !” To take up his cross means that we are no longer in control of our life, but that we have left everything in His hands !

Source (His Word for Today)