(Is 50:5-9A; Ps 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9; Jas 2:14-18; Mk 8:27-35)
I wrote last week about image. What image do you try to portray? Is it your own desired image, or do you try to uphold the
image of Christ? Today’s readings take this image to a whole new level and explain what this image actually is.
For the longest time, I portrayed an image that I desired. I wanted things, I wanted to do stuff and go places. I wanted to live a life that unfortunately we could not afford –financially. This image I wanted to represent was simply a façade, and one day its’ true self reared it’s ugly head – in the name of tens of thousands of dollars of debt. This was my image – and it was cracking. One day, it shattered.
How many of you have been here? A debt problem from which you felt there was no way out. An addiction that you could not control. A broken marriage that you simply wanted to run away from. The shame or guilt from hurting someone close to you – emotionally or physically. The anger and resentment you may have for your current situation in life, or health issues you face. The list goes on and on. So many times we try to convey an image to cover up some underlying problem or void. So many times, we shy away from that cross we must bear.
We all have many crosses we carry throughout our lives, but for my wife and I for many years, debt was our cross. And in many ways, it still is. We spent many years getting into significant debt, and it took us quite a few years, along with God’s amazing grace to get out of it. I wondered so many times throughout that period in our lives why we could not get ahead? Why could we not make up ground? Why could I not fix it? The more I tried to fix it, the worse things got. It wasn’t until we basically surrendered to God and relied on His grace that we were able to get out of it. Through a lot of prayer, faith in His plan, charity, and sacrifice, and some events that only God could design, we were able to get out of debt completely.
We took up our cross and carried it. We sacrificed many of the things we wanted so that we could save and pay things down. And we prayed. My how we prayed. And we followed Jesus all the way, and He led us out of it. And as my wife loves to hear me say, “we stayed the course.”
We realized that through our faith in God and in doing His will that He will provide, and this is what He did. We started to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit to help out and take part in various ministries. We chose to give back, not only monetarily, but also in our time and talents. And you know what? Through this increased faith, and prayer, and ministry work through our church and our community – our debt problems started to find solutions.
There were more issues that popped up throughout this time – career angst and uncertainty, depression, and the temptation to give up. But we persevered. We believed in each other, and most importantly, we believed in Christ’s love to guide us through.
We bore the cross we were given, but Jesus helped us carry it.
In reflecting on today’s readings, I couldn’t help but think of this period in my life. So many crosses to carry. And when you finally deliver one, it’s time to pick another one up.
Isaiah talks today about how Jesus will be there to help us during these times. James tells us today that while we may talk about our faith, we have to walk the walk of being a Christian. This means that we must follow Jesus and pick up our crosses and follow Him. Often in doing something good, it means we must sacrifice something for that greater good. We show our faith through the works we do.
To get out of debt – we had to make major sacrifices. We had to decide not to buy things we wanted and to put that money towards paying down the debt. We had to sacrifice our time for prayer – asking God to help us and show us the way, not always knowing what that way would be. We sacrificed more of our money to continue to give to charity, knowing that it would take us longer to pay stuff off. And we sacrificed more of our time taking part in church ministries or growing our own personal faith. All of this played a part in getting out of debt, and it’s only through Christ where this was possible.
We took up our cross, and we prayed for the strength to carry it. And we did it with Jesus’ help. It’s interesting, the more we focused on seeking and doing God’s will and less on our own problems and ourselves, the more Christ helped us carry our cross.
We showed faith through our works despite our adversity. It was through this 3 year period where I truly realized that God truly does exist, because not only did I feel the Holy Spirit, but considering all that happened, there is no other way we could have accomplished what we did.
Why am I telling this story? For starters, it is an example that covers the major themes in todays readings – Jesus is here to help us, we demonstrate our faith in Him by doing good works, and we show our love for Christ by bearing our crosses, just as He did. And by focusing our efforts on serving others, the more He will serve us.
But also, this story is about the process. The journey. When we bear our crosses, it may be tough and painful and frustrating going through it. It may make us downright mad. We may feel like Job and that the whole world is against us. It may be more than we think we can bear, and we just want to give in.
We probably could have declared bankruptcy, and went on about our life, only to not fix the issues we had with our spending and likely would have ended up in the same situation again, if not worse. But we chose to bear the cross and stay the course and follow the Holy Spirit. And through this journey and this process, we built the discipline and character and strength necessary to keep us from going back down that path, and God willing to never go down that path again.
This is why we take up the cross, because the cross makes us stronger. The crosses in our lives build the discipline necessary to make us better people. It’s only through taking up these crosses in our lives where we can truly act in the image of Christ and be more like Him and truly become better.
Christ carried His cross to become fully human. But he rose again because He is fully divine. We are fully human, but we must carry our crosses so we can share in His divinity.
This is why we must embrace the crosses in our lives, and not shy away from what is difficult or what God’s will is for us. We must stay the course and ask Him to help us carry it, and seek to help others carry theirs. This is how we live in Christ’s image.
