Jesus called the crowd together with his disciples, and said to them, "Anyone who wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."Mark 8: 34-35
At the heart of Christian faith is the paradox of the cross. God became man and passed through human suffering and death to show us the way to the holiness of God. God humbled himself and took on our human condition to show us that we cannot be filled with the love of God until we are emptied of everything else. More compelling than any words, the cross reveals the essence of our human condition and the promise of its fulfillment.
In the eyes of the world the cross is a sign of contradiction. It goes against everything the world lives for. My deepest instinct is to look out for myself. Everything about me recoils at the idea of denying myself, of laying down my life.
But to the eyes of faith the cross is the sign of our salvation. By faith we know that our life is not our own; it belongs to God. Our life is a mystery known only to God. We know by faith that our fulfillment will come beyond this earthly life, and to reach it we must let go of the things of earth and set out on the way to heaven. Only God can bring our life to fulfillment. The only way to become fully human is to live for God alone, and to seek to do his will in all things.
By faith we become like the grain of wheat that by itself is nothing more than a lifeless seed. When like the grain of wheat we die to self and place ourselves in the hands of God, we yield a rich harvest of grace. We must trust the Lord, who created us and who knows our hearts, to transform us into an abundant new creation filled with his love.
Lord Jesus Christ, take all my freedom, my memory, my understanding, and my will. All that I have and cherish you have given me. I surrender it all to be guided by your will. Your grace and your love are wealth enough for me. Give me these, Lord Jesus, and I ask for nothing more.Ignatius Loyola