22nd Sunday A 30 August 2026 Taking up the Cross
Why is it necessary for us to suffer in the cause of Christ? Why does Jesus say we must take up our cross daily?
The Cross became necessary when evil first came to the world.
If there had been no evil there would have been no suffering, no need for a Cross. Evil has put things off course. It has to be overcome, and it makes very strong opposition.
It is like the difference between catching one criminal and stamping out crime altogether. One is much harder than the other, and the harder thing must be done.
God created a perfect world, and He means to have it back to that perfection.
He can forgive sin when it happens; but He wants to get to the root cause of the whole thing and pull out that root.
It is a major operation, even for God, because it involves the free will of millions of people.
God could force us to be good by overriding our wills, but He chooses the more difficult part of persuading us to adopt His will.
He finds it necessary to come to the world Himself and take on our human nature.
He needed to operate from the inside, doing what needed to be done in His own human nature, thus eventually taking us up to His level.
So humanity is carried beyond the power of the devil and recaptures its original freedom, and better yet, because now closer to God through Christ’s incarnation.
This defeats the devil at every level - spiritual, physical, individual, universal. And it replaces the veil of death hanging over the world with a new glory. Cf the people that lived in darkness have seen a great light (Is 9,2).
It is a saving of individual people and of the whole creation itself Creation is longing to be set free (Rom 8,21).
Peter operating at the accustomed worldly level sought naturally to spare Jesus any suffering.
We also would be inclined to talk our loved ones out of having themselves killed!
But Jesus was operating on a higher plane, and could see the need for His most decisive action – offering Himself as a sacrifice for sins.
He could have stayed on earth and done much good, but the sacrifice of Himself was the most perfect action possible.
The degree of love shown in His sacrifice was sufficient to overcome all the combined hatred of the world, including that of the devil.
The Cross reconciles man with God. It also works subtly on all who see it, inviting them to give allegiance to all that the Cross stands for.
We win some and we lose some, just like other kinds of battle. The fight must go on.
We lose a lot of people over the ‘Cross’ issue. It is a longer route than we would have chosen
We might doubt our own ability to love with such force; we can improve with practice.
We will find reserves we did not know we have as we interact with the Saviour.
What should Peter have said? Yes, Lord, we will go with You, and die with You if necessary.
That was another demerit for Peter, because he did say that and then denied Our Lord the same night!
His capacity to love was increased, however, going through all these traumas. His orbit had been enlarged. Soon he could love the whole world. As Our Lord already did.
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