Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 28, 2005


Is carrying your cross a heroic, or non-heroic activity for you most of the time?

How many of you saw Mel Gibson’s The Passion? It was too painful for me to watch in a few sections. Yet, in many ways, it tied into this sense I had about Jesus carrying his cross. Carrying his cross was a heroic endeavor of Jesus. Staggering foot by foot under the blows of the soldiers; the jeers of the crowd. Muscling the heavy timber put upon his back; carrying that wood only by a superhuman knitting of his will to his love for us. Only a strong man, a heroic man could do that kind of lifting, that kind of loving. And I think I have always had those kind of images in my head about the passion. It was out of that context that I have always heard the command in today’s gospel: “Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” Cross carrying was heroic effort. The stuff of giants. The task of men and women much stronger than I.

But I wonder if that is the case for most of us. Certainly there are some whose crosses are a huge burden. There are the rare ones who suffer from painful disease. There is a gal in the parish whom cared for her father in a wheelchair until he died and her brother who is now a 48 year old down’s syndrome man for the past 8 years. There are those who were born blind or deaf or without the senses that you and I take for granted. Cross carrying as heroic activity is always around us. But I wonder if for most of us, is cross-carrying a heroic, or non-heroic activity?

I got into an extended conversation with a student at thing called Christian family camp. Their spiritual life was not even close to what it had been in high school. It had been a gradual thing, a slow drifting away from practices of prayer and mass. Now that they were out of the habit of going to mass, it seemed so difficult to go back that first time, so hard to ‘come home’ to where they needed to be. As I thought about that conversation later that evening, it struck me they needed a lesson in ‘non-heroic cross carrying.’ They didn’t need to pick up the heavy cross and carry it all the way to Golgotha that day. What God was asking was for them to put down the books for an hour on Sunday evening to attend mass, even if it meant being a little behind in their homework. And then to make a choice to turn to Jesus in prayer at some point of the day just for five minutes. Because the heart of what Jesus is asking Peter/the disciples/you and I in tonight’s gospel is to “follow me.”

In Matthew’s gospel, the Greek word translated as “Get behind me” is also the same word that appears in the next line – ‘take up your cross and follow me.’ What seems like a harsh rebuke is also an invitation to literally ‘get behind’ Jesus – to follow him more profoundly. What he says is this: “Simon, you just get yourself to the back of the line and continue to follow me. Take up the cross – the daily one, the ordinary cross of denying self – so as to live as I do.”

It is a truth that happily married couples discovered a long time ago. The secret to their faithfulness is not in the huge moments, but in the taking out of the trash and the cleaning of the dishes and the offering to pick up the kids when you are both tired. Ordinary cross-carrying. Doing the day in and day out things which are necessary to be faithful in the relationship.

As a priest, most of the time my cross is not heroic acts of suffering, but walking down the rectory steps and running into someone who wants my attention NOW and being 100% present. Putting aside whatever mission I was on to be attentive to them. “Ahh, that’s cross carrying in normal Christianity”. Ordinary cross carrying is a parent changing diapers; Ordinary cross carrying is a student’s choice to put aside the homework for a while so you can listen to a roommate who is hurting. Ordinary cross carrying is forgoing the price of a movie so as to make an offering for Bread for the World or Operation Food Search.

“Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” What does that look like in your life these days? Some of you here may be called to the heroic cross carrying this week. If so, then know of the support of this community around you. Like Simon the Cyrene, let us help you carry that burden. For most of us, though, I suspect it is the ordinary cross carrying we will be about. The forgetting of the self so as to live present to the other. The carving of time from our days to pray; the decision to acknowledge that awkward student with respect. This week, cultivate awareness of how Jesus is inviting you to ‘follow him’ in prayer, to ‘get behind him as a disciple. So that when the opportunity to deny ourselves comes, we’ll be right there to take up our cross…