12TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C
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CROSS OF JOY
Do we still really care about the
cross? Not the cross as altar
piece, liturgical décor or religious relic but the cross of life, the kind that
the Lord Jesus speaks about: forget yourself, carry the cross and follow me.
We live in an age of comfort and
convenience. Information is fast. Amenities are improved. Dreams are reachable.
Solutions are easy to come by. That is why many Filipinos voted the way they
did in the last national elections. They want to wipe out many sufferings (very
valid indeed) in the lives of millions of people. And they want to do it quick
and easy, within 3 to 6 months, as the elected president promised, and as
people believed.
We are not anymore comfortable
with the cross. If we can get it out of the way, why must we suffer through it?
There are crosses that we need
not burden ourselves with. We must learn to throw away the weight of the cross
of our past lives so that we can walk lighter, with more ease, and more positive. We must learn to not worry about the
cross of our future for if we do so, we will only feel paralyzed and unable to
move towards it.
But Jesus is telling us to carry
the cross of everyday life, and follow him; look only at him and not the cross
on our shoulder. In spite of the
technology and advancements around us, the cross of daily life continues to
afflict our lives. For each person, a different cross: there is sickness,
personal problems, search for new opportunities, mistakes and weaknesses,
financial troubles, blunders in relationship, family problems, sin, and the
list is endless.
We can carry these crosses with
resentment, with pain, with regret. Or pretend that we do not have any cross on
our shoulders. But it will not go away. Jesus is offering us another
perspective: to carry the cross with hope, with peace, and with joy! Take up the cross and follow him. Look
at him alone. Look not at the cross but at the one who can transform our cross one
day into our crown of victory.
