The words of Jesus in this Gospel passage address one of the greatest mysteries faced by every single person who has lived, lives now and will live in the future: the mystery of suffering. But not only that, but also that from suffering comes salvation, as the prophet Zechariah wrote, that from the mourning of Jerusalem comes a fountain that purifies from sin and uncleanliness.
Every one of us here has experienced suffering, it comes in different forms and intensities, but it is always there. We cannot escape it.
Roughly six hundred years before Christ, a prince was born in present-day Nepal. When the prince was still very young, an attendant at the palace prophesized that the child would either be a great warrior or a great spiritual leader. The prince’s father wanted to make sure the prince grew up to be a great warrior and not a spiritual leader, so he worked tirelessly to shelter the boy from the world and especially from all suffering.
After a life full of delights and pleasures, the prince, now a 29 year old man, asked a servant to take him out into the city without his father’s permission. The prince was forever transformed. He saw four things he had never seen before (“the four sights” as they became known): an old man, a sick man, a dead man and an acetic, a man who had willingly given up all worldly delights and pleasures.
His first ever encounter with suffering transformed the young Siddartha and eventually led him down a path to find freedom from suffering. After being enlightened under a fig tree, he became the Budda, the enlightened one, and taught a path to find freedom from suffering in this world and in the next through personal discipline.
Jesus, experiencing the same reality of suffering, says in contrast, “if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
Christianity is not a path to find freedom from suffering, but rather, a path where the Lord calls us to embrace it in order to experience the hope of the resurrection that comes through faithful discipleship.
Freedom from suffering is found only by embracing it, not avoiding it. Freedom from suffering comes from the experience of the resurrection after the trial of the cross.
The narrow path to God is the carrying of the cross – carrying our own personal cross. We have heard this invitation from Christ so many times, but I am convinced that for many it remains a vague reality. Yet our crosses are far from vague, they are very concrete.
What is your cross? What is that difficulty you face daily? Is it an addiction? A family problem? An illness? Financial woes? A strained relationship? Living with the consequences of a past mistake?
Our crosses are those thorns in our lives that constantly prick our side. We are called to patiently and willingly carry the cross while keeping our faith in Christ: He helps us through it and helps us to carry it.
Don’t run away from it, accept it, embrace it, and seek the Lord’s mercy and grace.
We must be strong to enter through the narrow gate – Christian discipleship is not about warm and fuzzies. Christian discipleship is about the sacrificial giving of ourselves to God and others and finding the strength to carry the cross.
There, and only there, at the cross, we find hope. An early Christian hymn reminds us of this truth with its line which can be seen to this day in many crosses: Ave Crux Spes Unica: Hail the Cross, Our Only Hope.
It is there, at the cross, that our lives make sense and where we find lasting fulfillment and joy. It’s the great paradox of our faith – a great mystery, that at the cross we find our salvation, that in suffering we find joy and that in the losing of our life we will find it and will receive lasting peace and fulfillment.
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