I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.
– St Paul to the Romans
Denying ourselves, sacrificing ourselves for the sake of others, bearing our daily crosses, and offering all of that up to God for the merits of others – not our own merit. I think about these things when I reflect on the readings for today. Jesus tells us that to follow Him, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow.
This is a blessing, a grace of the crosses that come our way. Just as with Jesus, He announces to the disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly, and be killed. He must do this for the world. He must bear His literal cross, and be crucified, and die for us, so that the ship can be righted, so to speak. Peter gets so upset at this and tells Jesus that this will never happen! But Peter didn’t listen to the rest of Jesus’ words – that on the third day, He would be raised.
There was a reason and a purpose for all that Jesus was to do and undergo, and there was a joy and a gift – a joy of salvation and a gift of eternal life.
And so, in our daily crosses, we too can find joy. We too can receive gifts and graces. God doesn’t send the suffering and tragedy our way, saying “Ha! let’s see how Joe deals with this!” I know many people think that, asking why would a good God let suffering happen? Why would a good God let such tragedy and wrongs happen to innocent people? Why would God send a hurricane to Texas and let it dump 50 inches of rain in an area with millions of people and watch their lives be destroyed by flooding? And that’s just here in the United States. This is happening in other parts of the world too. Why would a good God do this, we ask…?
God doesn’t do this. It is a fallen world, people have free will. We live in a world where there is nature and science, disease and weather – things just simply happen. Hurricanes hit. People get into car accidents. Planes crash. People get cancer. People get depressed. These things just happen, for no apparent reason. People get persecuted for their faith, for trying to stand-up to the negative and do something good.
I’ve experienced these or know people directly impacted by every one of these occurrences. Every time, I have questioned – why? I never get an answer as to why. I know that God does not send these things our way, but I do know that He uses them for the better when they do occur, as opportunities for us to reach out to Him, to rely and trust in Him, to let Him guide us, and to grow our faith. To pull us towards Him.
I do know that our crosses in life, can purify us, shape our soul, our character, and our strength – if we trust in and rely on God to get us through, even if we don’t understand.
And I do know, that if we deny ourselves, sacrifice our own will and our selfish desires for the will of God, and offer up our sacrifices and suffering to Him for the good of someone else, that there is merit here. Not only does this purify our own soul, but I’ve seen prayers answered – for others – in this very act.
And so as much as I hate to see and experience any kind of trial and suffering or tragedy, there is joy and grace and a gift to be found there if we use these as an opportunity to love. To love and lean on Christ, and use these as an opportunity to love others.
If we conform ourselves to the world, to society, and let this overcome us, and we wallow in our own self-pity and selfish desires, we will be destroyed – eternally. But with each cross that comes our way, if we look at it as an opportunity to renew and grow our prayer life, and our spiritual relationship with God, and deny our wills and look to these crosses as a way to help others somehow, and ask God to show us that – we will grow immensely and we, too will be raised after our death and live eternally with Christ.
This is the joy to be found in our daily crosses. But we must deny ourselves. We must deny our will, and discern the will of God. We’ve got to deny our own wants, our own sorrows, our own selfish desires and simply let Him guide us, so that we can follow.
We must not ask the question, why would God Let this happen – but ask what is God wanting me to learn from this experience? What is God wanting me to do – right now – as a result of this cross? What is God wanting me to share with others based upon what I am experiencing? Where is God pulling me closer to Him?
In every single instance, we will be tempted not to do this. We will be tempted to give into our own will and desires, and focus on our self, and turn away from Christ. We will have obstacles come before us, trying to prevent us from thinking this way, and following God. This is when we exclaim, as Jesus did, “Get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle to me.”
Jesus will be there, to show us the way, to renew and deepen our understanding of Him, and lead us to all that is good and pleasing and perfect.
