September 26, 2020

Since the Cross is the medicine that heals our wounds and offers us a new opportunity for life, it makes sense that Jesus would say, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24).  The Lord invites us to divest ourselves of false cures, neediness, and fear-based attachments that we mistakenly think will bring us health and healing.  He wants us to “deny ourselves,” that is, to reject ego-driven behavior, so that our wound can be made available to the divine physician.  And, when the Cross  is in fact locked in place as the singular source of healing and protection in our lives, our hearts are freed to feel, our minds freed to wonder and our feet freed to walk, walk, walk, walk, walk in the open spaces of the kingdom (cf. Ps 119:45).  Other people are not our cross, jobs are not our cross, politics is not our cross.  These are simply circumstances that challenge us to perceive our wounds more clearly and to welcome the one, true Cross – blazing, glorious and powerful – into those places that we have masked and hidden from the light of day.  Let us, therefore, take up this Cross and follow him.  Ave Crux, Spes Unica!