(Audio)
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
To deny oneself sounds and in fact is negative. But it is a negation in favor of something positive. It negates the old, broken, and ultimately hopeless in favor of something new and lasting.
It is therefore then that we leave and deny ourselves, when we avoid that which we were of old, and strive towards that to which we are called in newness.
- Saint Gregory the Great
We aren't called to simply direct ourselves away from all enjoyment toward some generalized despair in hope of some eventual payoff. Yes, there are even good things which we must set aside because we must prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Jesus offers us the newness of life that comes only through his resurrection. We are already made to share in this life in baptism. But we must continue to prefer it to our old selves throughout life.
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (see Ephesians 4:22-24).
Why then all this talk of the cross? Why not just focus on pursuing the new and ignore the old and broken parts of ourselves? Because the old remains in us and continues to influence us. It subtly affects our patterns of thinking and acting. We can't get beyond a problem we don't recognize or one which we choose to ignore. In fact, on our own, we can't get beyond it at all. We can only do so by availing ourselves of the grace which Jesus already won on the cross. That grace has the power to undergird any mortifications we are called to attempt. It is itself the strength by which we prefer the new life to the act, and think and act according to its dictates. The point is that as long as we need this grace, and everyone that is not yet in heaven needs it, we still need the grace of the cross. Yet the cross is never entirely without connection to the resurrection. For us, it is never without hope. It need never be without sweetness.
Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here
who will not taste death
until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.
The LORD himself is the bearer of good news, upon the mountain advancing, announcing peace to his people. The peace can be found only in him and his providence, for only he can destroy the ravagers and the bloody cities that not only surround us, but with which we are still in some measure complicit. We are meant to be a vine connected to and bearing fruit in the LORD. His cross prunes us of all that is not true life.
Celebrate your feasts, O Judah,
fulfill your vows!
For nevermore shall you be invaded
by the scoundrel; he is completely destroyed.
The LORD will restore the vine of Jacob,
the pride of Israel
Brian Doerksen - At the Cross
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