“WHOEVER WISHES TO COME AFTER ME MUST DENY HIMSELF, TAKE UP HIS - TopicsExpress



          

“WHOEVER WISHES TO COME AFTER ME MUST DENY HIMSELF, TAKE UP HIS CROSS, AND FOLLOW ME.” It is this moment in Caesarea Philippi, for the disciples and for us to make our move. What are we going to do? What direction will we go? It’s game time. Jesus is like a coach that is telling us the game we are going to play, the practice and conditioning we will need, the plays that we will need to execute and the reward, when we win. The pattern used by Jesus can be applied to any journey whether it be sports, military, or a pilgrimage. First, Jesus will show us what we are getting into – “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Jesus will never reveal to us everything that we are getting into or perhaps we would never go. He will be honest with us. Jesus does not and cannot trick us. He is not going to manipulate us just so we will follow Him. Jesus will show us where we are going. Second, Jesus will reveal to us our sins - “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” He will show us our flaws and faults, which will be an obstacle on the pilgrimage to where we are going. He will tell us what we need to leave behind and what is going to make the journey either impossible or difficult. Third, Jesus gives us our mission statement, our marching orders - “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” These are clear yet not simple 1, 2, 3 steps. It is at this third stage that He asks if we are in or out, if we are going to commit to this journey. Fourth, Jesus gives us the consequence for our actions. He tells us what the consequence will be if we stay and what it will be if we go. For those that commit, He is telling them of their reward. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in His Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.” We need to take serious the third stage, our mission statement and marching orders. These words of Christ, to deny self, take up our cross and follow Him are a call to live the Gospel. It is the only way to make it to Jerusalem, to fully experience the passion, death and resurrection, which is the mystery of the Faith. If we refuse to deny self, take up our cross and follow Him, we are entering into the mystery, we are not living the faith. Saint John Chrysostom give us the five paths of repentance which are a good beginning to live out the call of Christ in today’s Gospel. To deny self, take up our cross and follow Christ takes a lifetime. First path – The condemnation of your own sins. To deny self means to become poor in spirit, to let go of pride. We realize that we need God and that we find our true self only when Christ reveals that self to us. Sin disfigures and tarnishes, the deny of self is to take of the tarnish and allow God to mold us into figure. When we “Therefore, you too should condemn your own sins; that will be enough reason for the Lord to forgive you, for a man who condemns his own sins is slower to commit them again. Rouse your conscience to accuse you within your own house, lest it become your accuser before the judgment seat of the Lord.” When we go to sacramental confession, we confess to the Priest, who is in the person of Christ. We literally sit before Christ in confession and accuse our self of our sins, we judge our self and our forgiven. If we do this regularly and with a good conscience, it will not be a surprise to us when we die and sit before Christ again at our judgment. The judgment begins now, let us ask for the Grace to accuse our self correctly. Saint John Vianney says in regards to sin, there are only two responses, we can either excuse our self or accuse our self. The beatitude that we follow on this first path is the “poor in spirit” and we turn from our pride. Second path – Put out of our minds the harm done to us by our enemies, in order to master our anger, and to forgive our fellow servants’ sins against us. We again turn from our pride on the second path when we forgive the sins others have committed against us. Are we so proud to that people will not sin against us? Are we so stuck on our self that we believe that people, even those close to us will not speak bad about us, persecute us and even hate us. Who are we to believe that we are exempt from ill treatment, when our Lord was treated so poorly? We must imitate our Lord who on the Cross said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” We follow the second path if we live out the words of the Our Father, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” As we walk this second path we are also living out the beatitudes “the meek,” “the persecuted,” and “the peacemakers.” As a Christian we may not hold grudges, we must forgive, if not, we are unable to move to the next path. Both the first and second path are paths in which we “deny self” by letting go of our pride. Third path – Prayer that is fervent, careful and comes from the heart. Both the third and fourth path help us to master the call to “pick up our cross.” It is prayer that helps us to know what our crosses are. We can imagine our crosses behind a door. Behind the door the crosses are unknown and not accessible to us. We must seek in order to find the door. We must ask at the door so that we can see our cross and we must knock so that we can see our cross. It is prayer then that helps us to discover the cross. This prayer needs to be fervent, careful and come from the heart if we are to see our crosses. On this third path we practice the beatitudes, “hunger and thirst for God” and “the pure of heart”. Through prayer we will be satisfied and we will see God. Fourth path – Almsgiving: Once we have discovered our cross, we have to pick it up. The first station of the Cross, Jesus is accepts the Cross, it is thus on this fourth path that we begin with Christ the first station of the Way of the Cross. Almsgiving is the act of charity, giving the gift of self and possessions to the poor, to those in need. We see that it is on the Cross that Jesus gives the perfect gift of self to humanity; it is only when we pick up our cross that we can practice charity. Almsgiving together with fasting and prayer help us to be penitential. On the fourth patch we practice the beatitudes of the “merciful” and “they who mourn”. Fifth path – Modesty and Humility: It is on the fifth path that we not only follow Christ but take on Christ, we become like Christ in our thoughts, words and actions. It is Christ who is humble and modest and we imitate not only these virtues of Christ but have practiced all the beatitudes and continue to live them out. On the fifth path we also begin to see the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our life, one of which is modesty. We are a billboard for Christ. We can put on modest clothing and modest behavior and actions that shows Christ to everyone we encounter. Modesty is usually just associated with dress, dress however is just one component of modesty. Modesty – The virtue that moderates all the internal and external movements and appearance of a person according to his or her endowments, possessions, and station in life. Four virtues are commonly included under modesty: humility, studioness, and two kinds of external modesty, namely in dress and general behavior. Humility is the ground of modesty in that it curbs the inordinate desire for personal excellence and inclines one to recognize his or her own worth in its true light…Modesty in dress and bodily adornments inclines a person to avoid not only whatever is not necessary. Modesty in bodily behavior directs a person to observe proper decorum in bodily movements, according to the dictum of St. Augustine, “In all your movements let nothing be evident that would offend the eyes of another.” Modesty does diminish who we are, it rather highlights who we are and allows us to showcase the life of Christ within us. The faithful are the Body of Christ. Are we showcasing the Body of Christ in our body, in our exterior and interior actions? We people can see Christ, His life and virtue in us; it is then that we are on the fifth path. "Follow me..." GOSPEL – Matthew 8:18-22 When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other shore. A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 01:20:00 +0000

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