Choosing, carrying and following

In contrast to the readings on recent Sundays, this Sunday’s readings address a more serious reality, the consequences of discipleship. Jeremiah expresses his anguish and sense of the unbearable burden that results from serving as God’s prophet. His prophecies regarding the destruction of the kingdom of Judah earned him the disdain of his family, the residents of Jerusalem and, most especially, the royal authorities. So, he lashes out at God by claiming that the word of the Lord that he had preached has earned only “derision and reproach all the day” (Jer 20:8). The responses have been so harsh that he had decided not to speak the Lord’s Word anymore. He reports, however, an experience like a fire burning within him, suggesting God’s utter closeness to him. This divine intimacy is so compelling that it overturns Jeremiah’s plan to abandon his call.  

Similarly, in today’s Gospel, Jesus discloses to his disciples the undesirable consequences he will endure for his teaching, healings, and proclamation of the kingdom of heaven. When he goes up to Jerusalem, he will suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priest, and the scribes and be killed and raised up on the third day. This is the first of three passion predictions that Jesus delivers in Matthew (17:22-23, 20:17-19), and the disciples, especially Peter, were not ready to hear this.  Immediately, Peter rebukes Jesus, asserting that such a fate will never befall him. In turn, Jesus admonishes Peter for being an obstacle to Jesus’ own faithful path and assessing these matters from a human perspective, rather than from God’s view.  

Subsequently, Jesus delivers a discourse on discipleship that has implications for his followers as well as for us. He says, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt 16:24). Three key elements here lead our reflection. First, Jesus says “Whoever wishes to come after me.” Following Jesus is a choice. Though he extends the invitation, we must be the ones to choose, to say yes. This is a choice that requires a change in one’s life orientation. It is not an occasional decision or one spanning a few years here and there. It is a decision at some point in life that governs the rest of one’s life. It requires getting in touch with a deep-seated quest for our God, a longing within us so often dampened by other more immediate attractions, like those for success, comfort, importance, recognition, advancement, or approval. Yet, Jesus showed us a God with whom he shares oneness and who is the ground of our being as well. Recognizing that presence in order to choose to follow Jesus bids us to make the psalmist’s words our continual prayer: “Oh God, you are my God whom I seek” (Ps 63:2).

Second, Jesus’ invitation also summons us to take up our cross. He says, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross…” (Mt 16:24). We are being asked to take up our cross, not Jesus’ cross. He invites us to embrace, with a Christ-like trust in God, all the crosses that all our lives entail. Christ’s cross was the one on which he died. Karl Rahner once wrote that our crosses in this life require “dying by installments.” This means accepting the limitations and challenges of our human condition in a Christ-like manner. Such installments may be rearing with constancy and love a disabled child, teaching faithfully in an under-resourced school for impoverished children, exercising patience in a long-term relationship that is always fragile, coping in a spirit of hope with a life-threatening illness. These are a few of the many crosses that we carry with Christ. Suffering here is not the requirement. Christ never wants us to suffer. His whole life was devoted to relieving all kinds of suffering. Yet, this life does involve “crosses.” Remaining faithful to the way of Jesus as we carry them unites us with him and the cross he carried on his way to Calvary. 

Finally, Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt. 16:24). By “follow me,” Jesus does not mean for us to do exactly what he did or live our lives exactly as he lived his. That would be impossible. Even for the disciples, following Jesus did not mean physically walking after or behind him. In the simplest terms, following Jesus involves an entirely individual and unique way of conformity both to what he taught and to the ways he taught it. It means capturing with our own circumstances and creativity the very essence of who Jesus was and how he lived. It includes such overtures as deciding for inclusion rather than exclusion, fostering genuine hope in the face of doubt, choosing forgiveness rather than alienation, cultivating community rather than individualism, advocating healing where brokenness resides, and fostering love that overcomes injustice. Thus, Christ calls us to a free choice, to carry our crosses, and to follow him. We, for our part, have only one decision: How to respond!