Whoever Wishes To Come After Me Must Take Up His Cross and Follow Me

09-03-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Manasseh Iorchir, VC

Anyone who elects to live by and preach Christian ideals should be prepared to face a sustained persecution from “the kingdom of this world.” This is largely because the ways of the Lord are usually at odds with the ways of people who love the “freedom” from the “tyranny of the decalogue” offered by the devil. When persecution or the promise of it becomes imminent, there is always the temptation to lament or even reconsider our loyalty to the gospel. Even a great prophet like Jeremiah was not spared such humiliating experiences. God required the Prophet to say things that were true, yet quite offensive to many, especially the powerful in the course of his prophetic ministry. As a direct consequence, the Prophet had very few friends and found himself in trouble more often than not. His reaction was to lament about how God had “duped” him and how he had let himself be “duped” as a result of which he had to endure mockery and even bodily harm. Jeremiah’s lamentation is true of every ardent preacher and witness to the Gospel of Christ.

We would love to say only kind words that soothe pain and bring hope and joy to God’s people, but often the obligation to call sin by its name, speak truth to power, and courageously witness to the Gospel in an uncompromising manner is almost compulsive. The Holy Spirit who “seduced” Jeremiah in His time remains alive and active in every age and place. He continues to lead us to “witness to truth and justice” in spite of so many obstacles, distractions, our personal weaknesses, the attraction of political correctness and the benefits of pseudo neutrality. Like Jeremiah, we should allow God’s Word to “dupe” us, knowing that the fire of God’s Word, kindled in our hearts, cannot allow us to have peace until we set the world aflame with His love.

This explains Jesus’ response to Peter when he took Him aside and tried to remonstrate with him for predicting that He was going to endure his passion and death. This was the same Peter who acknowledged Christ as Messiah and Son of God and must have been delighted with the conferral of authority to teach, correct and govern on him by Christ in the preceding verses to the Gospel passage of this weekend. See, there is a Simon Peter in every person. We love to be friends with Jesus when things are great with us, but we make haste to scream, “God forbid, Lord!” when witnessing becomes hazardous. We glory in the crown for righteousness but we would rather have Christ without His cross.

Jesus reacted by strongly rebuking Peter’s indiscretion and stated the criteria for discipleship. A prospective disciple must be prepared to deny himself (willingness to die to self in order to find life again in Christ, willingness to prefer the will of Christ to one’s desires), take up his cross (willingness to suffer persecution of various kinds for the sake of the Gospel), and follow Christ (commitment to freely imitate Christ in love). We are invited to measure our commitment to Christ on the basis of this criteria.

May we surrender to the life-transforming impact of the Word of God and allow Christ to help us become not just preachers but also faithful witnesses to His Gospel.

Please be kind and may God bless you.

Fr. Manasseh