Twelfth Sunday of Year C - 20th June 2010

Following Christ

Jesus never hung out a recruiting poster. He did not advertise. He did not offer bonuses for joining. He did not have a mobile number or a Web site. One did not find him blogging or tweeting live on Facebook. He did, on occasion, give out free meals.

Having engaged the disciples in a conversation about who they and others believed him to be, he reveals that he is not the type of Messiah expected by some; not a military leader come to liberate the Jews from their oppressors. He then presents to them the awesome prospect of his outright rejection and shameful death. And most importantly his resurrection.

He then puts his pitch: Whoever wishes to be my follower must renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. The cross and Christ are inseparable.

For Jesus the cross is the suffering that comes as a consequence of being faithful to the good news of the kingdom. There is twofold reason for this. Firstly, Jesus advocates a life of dedication to serving others, but this is counter to the human drive in each one of us to look after "number one", ourselves. Renouncing ourselves for others will bring its own cross.

The second reason is, those in power do not want their favourable status disrupted or changed and so are determined to oppose or persecute those who advocate equality, reconciliation and justice. The suffering of the cross is the result of persisting to love in a loveless world. This is what the followers of Jesus have to face day in day out.

Fidelity is a problem today: in marriage, in priesthood. Would a return to the way of the cross strengthen the backbone of commitment. Self-fulfilment and self-actualisation are part of the new creed. But in order to follow Christ, somewhere along the line, choices must be made. To retain our integrity, we may have to lose money. To be true to ourselves, we may be forced to lose a friend. To be able to look in the mirror, we may have to sacrifice the esteem of people who matter to us.

The path that Jesus chose led inevitably to the cross, and following him does the same for us. But the cross is not the end of the story: not for him, and not for us. On the other side of death is the fullness of life.