We Happy Few

Embracing the cross so we can embrace Christ

09/03/2017

Matthew 16:21-27 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. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 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."

               Is your way of thinking like that of the rest of the world, or do you think more like Jesus? Now, to be sure, sometimes we can walk arm-in-arm with the world, but sometimes – indeed, most times – Christianity and the cosmos are at cross purposes. William Wordsworth, the great English Romantic poet, wrote in 1807 these challenging and chilling words: “The world is too much with us; late and soon / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; / Little we see in nature that is ours; / We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” In other words, when we’re in lock-step with the world, we are the losers, but when we distance ourselves from the ways of the world, we become winners, spiritually-speaking.

               Someone sent me this story via email recently that makes the same point. An Irish man said: “I went to the confessional box after many years of being away from the Catholic Church. Inside the confessional I found a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap. On the wall there was a decanter with fine Irish Whiskey and Waterford crystal glasses. On the other wall was a dazzling array of the finest cigars and chocolates. When the priest came in, I said to him, “Father, forgive me for it’s been a very long time since I’ve been to confession. But I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be.’ He replied, “You moron, you’re on my side’.” Folks, that’s just a joke – there are no Waterford crystal glasses in the confessional. But you see how easy it is to slip into the way of the world, for priests and for people, alike. The Christian path, on the other hand, requires carrying the cross. Christians are always at cross purposes with the world.

                 In the gospel today, Peter finds it hard to stop walking with the world and to start following Christ closer because the cost of closeness to Christ is the cross.  Jesus explains that “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed.” Peter is appalled and argues: “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” I’m sure Peter thought he was being brave and trying to save Jesus. But Jesus scolds him severely, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does but as human beings do.” In other words, Jesus was worried like Wordsworth that the world was too much wtih Peter, shaping his thoughts and decisions and actions. To follow Jesus, however, you must embrace the cross. If there is no cross, there is no Christ. Following Jesus always puts us as “cross purposes” with the world, because we think, choose and act differently from others.

                My friends, ask yourself today: where is the cross of Christ in my life? Why should you ask that? Well, because if there is no cross, then there is no Christ, and “the world is too much with us.” Let me give you three examples of how to embrace the cross so you can embrace Christ. When I was in high school I started thinking about the priesthood. And do you know what was one of the peculiar things that pulled me to the priesthood? It was celibacy, the sacrifice that priests cannot get married. Why was that attractive to me? I wanted to do something hard to show my love for Jesus because I realized how much he had sacrificed for me. Have you ever felt that before? It’s a deeply Christian instinct to want to suffer voluntarily for Jesus, to carry a cross. When you find the cross, you find Christ, and you feel at cross purposes with the world.

               Secondly, I’m always so pleased when Catholics have large families, lots of children. We used to call them “good Catholic families.” Last week I had the funeral of Brian Schluterman, who was one of nine children. His father, J.T. said to me: “I don’t know where all these kids came from! Maybe Betsy and I should not have shared the same bathwater!” But I know where those kids came from : they came from J.T. and Betsy carrying the Cross by being open to more children. They were thinking like God does, not as human beings do. When you find the cross, you’ll find Christ, and moreover, and you’ll find yourself at cross purposes with the ways of the world.

                 And thirdly, let me return to the well-stocked confessional, loaded with Irish whiskey and chocolates. When was the last time you went to confession? No sacrament is a better litmus test of whether you’re walking with the world or carrying the cross with Christ than going to confession. It really separates Christians into two camps. Why? Well, because confession is hard, it’s embarrassing, it’s humbling, it makes us realize we are still sinner and not yet saints, it empties our egos. But if we avoid the cross of confession, Jesus says to us like he said to Peter: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” Or, in the words of Wordsworth: “The world is too much with us.” We are not at cross purposes with the world because we won’t pick up the cross.

                 One of the most stirring speeches in Shakespeare can be found in the play “Henry V.” When King Henry wanted to rouse his men to fight the French he said these famous lines: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; / For he today that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, / This day shall gentle his condition” (Henry V, IV, 3). In other words, to be a brother to King Henry, you had to shed your blood; you’d become a sort of “blood brother” to him. And that’s true for Jesus; we must carry our cross if we are to be Jesus’ brothers and sisters, is “band of brothers.” Christians are called to be at cross purposes with the world, and maybe that’s why they’re always “the few, the happy few.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!