24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Sunday 13th September 2015)
You cannot have Christianity without the Cross – (Mark 8:27-35)
The great mission in the Church is that of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus to the world so it seems strange that in this Sunday’s Gospel Our Blessed Lord gave Peter and the other apostles “strict orders not to tell anyone about him”. Why would he do such a thing?
The answer is also in this Sunday’s Gospel. Jesus teaches his apostles that he will have to suffer grievously, to be rejected and put to death and then he will rise after three days. Jesus is telling his disciples that to truly understand who he is they must wait until after the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It is only in the light of his dying and rising to new life that they are fully begin to understand who Jesus is.
There is an old saying which says; “you cannot have Christianity without the Cross”. This is a very real challenge to all of us who call ourselves Christians. Earlier in the year we saw the ruthless killing of those Coptic Christians in Libya when they were killed for being “Followers of the Cross”. This was a brutal reminder to us of who we really are as Christians.
Each one of us has to ask ourselves; where is the Cross in my life. Or maybe even better how does the mystery of the Cross help me to live my life in a fuller way. I am thinking of people who suffer long and painful sicknesses, how the Cross gives meaning to their lives. I am thinking of those who remain faithful to their vows even when all around them they are being told to take the easy road and do their own thing. I am thinking of all those thousands of Christians who today have had to leave their homes and villages because they are Christians. Only the Cross allows them to live their lives fully, knowing that by uniting oneself with Christ does this present suffering make any sense and the hope of the resurrection makes it all worthwhile.
Many modern forms of Christianity try to remove the Cross from our faith, it can’t be done. If one tries then one will never know who Christ is and therefore it is better to say nothing about him.
Lord Jesus we pray for the grace to accept the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection in our lives and so give witness to you.
Fr. John Harris OP