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To take up one's cross and follow Christ is in parallel fashion to act in accordance with one's lights, to be faithful to one's true self; it is
to carry out the will of God, enduring patiently the trials that this must necessarily involve.
These are the terms in which our lord's passion and death are expressed in their most authoritative formulation.
- Dom Aelred Graham, Zen Catholicism -
(What trials are you encountering at this time in
life? How can accepting them patiently and with integrity be a sharing in Christ's cross?)
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1 PT 5:1-4; PS 23:1-6; MT 16:13-19 R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
USCCB Lectionary
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It is obvious to us that Jesus' sense of authority is not easily grasped in our culture and time or in any era of human history. Not only does he have to catechize his followers a number of times on the issue, he has to witness it by his behavior in every relationship in his life and ultimately in the manner of his death. And they/we still don't get it! Jesus never "flaunts" power over anyone or coerces anyone to do his will. He invites, challenges, seduces by love, all behaviors that leave the other free to embrace or reject his desire. He gives us the freedom from the consequences of sin so that we are free to say yes, but He never takes away the power to say no.
Within Christian history this Gospel testimony has not been regularly heeded - and the consequence in every instance has been the failure of the Church to fulfill the mission of Christ. The human heart is turned to bitterness and revenge when the Church has raised a sword of conquest rather than the hand of mercy; the community of believers has been torn in shreds when ecclesial pompousness and greed refused to hear the cry of the poor begging for Good News.
Even the text of today's Gospel (whatever you bind . . . whatever you loose . . .) is often understood to mean that the Church 'controls' the distribution of God's mercy - but a more accurate interpretation of binding and loosing is to see them as parallels rather than opposites: whenever the Church chooses to bind up the wounds of the world, God is binding those wounds. When the Church looses the chains of sin's power, God frees the human heart to forgive and to love. The "keys" to the Reign of God are the manner and pattern of Jesus' ministerial response: the keys of humble service in life and through death. - by Eileen Burke-Sullivan Creighton Online Ministries
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On Cleaving to God, by St. Albert the Great
. . . just as it is by operation of providence that all good things exist, so it is by its permission that all bad things are changed into good. In this way in fact God's power, wisdom and mercy are shown forth through Christ our redeemer - his mercy and his justice, the power of grace and the weakness of nature, the beauty of everything in the association of opposites, the approval of the good, and the malice and punishment of the wicked.
- Chapter 16. How God's providence includes everything.
Paperback (Kindle edition available)
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