“And he said to all, ‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’” (Luke 9:23).
The cross of Jesus Christ redeemed us and brought us the kingdom of God, in which we can now live forgiven for our sins and reconciled with God. It is a kingdom of heavenly peace on earth that will come in its fullness at the Parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ on the clouds of heaven but exists already ahead of time for those who believe in him.
We see in the above quotation that not only Christ but we too must bear the cross if we want to be his followers. How should a Christian live? What is the purpose of our new life of faith, of our new life in Christ? We are not here for the pleasures of the world but rather to deny ourselves and take up our cross every day and follow Jesus. This means that we are to preach the truth of his gospel and offer ourselves in sacrifice with him to the Father. If we do this in a way that is faithful to his will, we will be persecuted in this world. Those who accept this and continue living for him with all their heart and mind will be his true followers. They will bear their cross of persecution and rejection every day. Thus will be their life in this world.
The Christian life is a life of sacrifice and renunciation of self, for we wish to serve but one master only (Matt. 6:24) and have only one treasure in this world (Matt. 6:19-21), namely Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. If we want this treasure, we have to sacrifice everything else to obtain it as did the man who discovered the treasure buried in a field. He had to sell everything he had in order to be able to buy the field and all it contained and thus gain possession of the treasure (Matt. 13:44).
hat does this parable teach us? It teaches us that if we want to obtain the kingdom of God, we have to do what this man did, renounce everything else, all the pleasures of the world, which only divide our hearts. Only in this way will we be able to possess this great treasure. To possess the kingdom of God is to have Jesus Christ shining in our hearts, filling us with heavenly peace and the joy of the Holy Spirit. But to receive this we have to have an undivided heart in our love for him.
Therefore Jesus says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it” (Luke 9:24). We lose our life for his sake by denying ourselves, by renouncing the world. Therefore during Lent we sacrifice the unnecessary delights of the table, and other things too, something we should be doing all year long, but for those who have not done so, at least during Lent they should do so. In this way, they will deny themselves, take up their cross of sacrifice, sell all to obtain the treasure, have only one treasure, and serve only one master. In this way, they will lose their life in this world for the sake of Christ, and in losing it they will save it.
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