Take up your cross and follow me

“He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said^* to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”  (Mark 8: 34)

First note who was summoned to hear this radical teaching.  Not just the disciples but the crowd.  The cross is at the very center of Christianity.  “‘In this sign, you shall conquer’” and the sign of the cross were visible to the future emperor Constantine and his entire army. Jesus asks anybody who wishes to follow Him to “take up his cross, and follow me.”

What is the cross for me?  The cross is not just a piece of wood or metal shaped in the form of a cross.  The cross means for me all the 7-War Zones elements:  Health, Family, Money, Job, Tools, Food, Future.  The soul of man may be severely tested in any or all of these.  Remember Job in the Bible?  We witnessed on television how Blessed John Paul II took up his cross of ill-health and followed Jesus.  Even non Christians were touched. 

What makes the cross bearable is not the size or the form but Jesus Christ whom we follow voluntarily.  Jesus promises:

 “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,^* and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11: 28-30)

We labor and are burdened in life over: Health, Family, Money, Job, Tools, Food, Future issues.  As the catechumens are advised in the Rite of Acceptance, the Cross of Christ is the only answer.  

I like very much the prayer for the intercession of St. Josemaria Escriva reproduced below:

“O God, through the mediation of Mary our Mother, you granted your priest Saint Josemaria countless graces, choosing him as a most faithful instrument to found Opus Dei, a way of sanctification in daily work and in the fulfillment of the Christian’s ordinary duties.  Grant that I too may learn to turn all the circumstances and events of my life into occasions of loving you and serving the Church, the Pope and all souls with joy and simplicity, lighting up the pathways of this earth with faith and love.

Deign to grant me, through the intercession of Saint Josemaria, the favor of ….(make your request).  Amen”