The Cross: The Requisite for Discipleship

Christ, the Strength of the Martyrs!

PRAISED Be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

Last week, Simon received the name Peter. Today, he is called Satan. Last week, he was praised for receiving revelation from the heavenly Father. Today, he is rebuked for thinking not as God does but as human beings do. Simon Peter was rebuked for opposing the plan of the Lord to go to Jerusalem in order to suffer and die in order to be raised up. Many of us might object: Was it wrong for St. Peter to desire for the Lord’s safety and well-being? Apparently, we find nothing wrong with what Peter said. But this is because we also are thinking as humans do. We are not thinking as God does.

The Lord called Peter “Satan” because Peter was opposing the mission of Jesus to suffer and die on the Cross. He was acting as an “enemy of the cross”. In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul spoke about the enemies of the Cross: “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.”  (Phil. 3:18-19) To detest the Cross is to be its enemy.

To the Lord, the Cross plays an integral part of his mission. To him, it is the only means to enter into his glory. Thus, he makes it a requirement for discipleship. Anyone who wishes to be his disciple must embrace the Cross: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” The doctrine of the Cross opposes the way of the world which is the way of self-preservation: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” The way of the world is self-preservation through accumulation. The world regards suffering as evil which should be avoided. We are taught that we must accumulate as much as we can in order to shield ourselves from suffering. But the Lord himself tells us that the rejection of the Cross is the path to destruction: “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?”

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross wrote: “The entirely comfortable being-at-home in the world, the satiety of pleasures that it offers, the demands for their pleasures and the matter-of-course consent to these demands – all of this is darkness in God’s eyes and incompatible with the divine light. It has to be totally uprooted if room for God is to be made in the soul. Meeting this demand means engaging in battle with one’s own nature all along the line, taking up one’s cross and delivering oneself up to be crucified.” (Edith Stein, The Science of the Cross, 47.)

The path to life is the path of self-denial. The way of the Cross is the way of discipleship. But what does it mean to deny oneself and to take up the Cross? St. John of the Cross explains this through maxims. He said: “Take care that your inclination is ever directed: not toward the easier, but toward the more difficult; not toward the pleasant, but toward the unpleasant; not toward the restful, but toward the troublesome; not toward the more, but toward the less, not toward what brings you more joy, but what brings displeasure; not towards what prepares consolation for you, but toward what makes you disconsolate; not toward the higher and more valuable, but toward the lowly and insignificant; not toward what wants to be something, but toward what wants to be nothing. Seek not what is the better in things, but what is worse. Demand for the sake of Christ to enter into total denudation and freedom and poverty from all there is in the world.” (CWJC, A.1.13.6-8.)

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee! 

The Challenge of Conversion to Child-like Nothingness

PRAISED BE JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH.

“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Children are seldom regarded as role models. In fact, children are always taught to imitate the good examples of the adults. They are always told that they still have many things to learn and to experience. “Marami ka pang kakaining bigas,” the usual admonition they would receive from adults, would imply that their lack of experience disqualifies them from being models.

However, when asked about greatness in the kingdom of heaven, the Lord Jesus puts a child in the midst of his disciples and tells them, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” When we look at the image of the Santo Nino, we see the real implication of these words of the Lord. In the Santo Nino, we see Christ who is King of kings and Lord of lords and yet has become a little child. By his incarnation, God the Son, in assuming human nature, became a little child. He humbled himself like a child. He became a child…and therefore, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In the humility of his childhood, Jesus remained to be who he is: God’s only begotten Son in whom the Father was well pleased. His humanity never diminished in any way his divinity. He continues to be the one to whom is given every authority in heaven and on earth. This little child is for ever Wonder-counselor, God-hero, Father-forever, and Prince of Peace. His dominion is forever peaceful. As David’s successor, his power is based on right and justice.

By the mystery of his childhood, the Lord Jesus prepared for us the path to greatness in the kingdom of heaven. He challenges us to conversion: “Unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Fr. Marie Eugene of the Child Jesus said: “…to become authentic children of God, to receive truly all the benefits of the Incarnation and partake of them, whoever we may be, rich or poor, we must be truly poor.” St. John of the Cross has underlined this poverty: “Try always to prefer…not what is easiest, but most difficult; not what is most delightful, but most difficult; not what is most satisfying, but unpleasant; not what is restful, but laborious; not what brings consolation, but what does not; not having more, but having less; not what is most desirable, but no one wants; not wanting something, but wanting nothing; not seeking the best, but the worst; in short try always to prefer the desire to be stripped of everything, in poverty, for the sake of Christ.” (John of the Cross, Ascent to Mount Carmel, book 1, chapter 13.)

Fr. Marie Eugene said that it is by realizing in life this self-emptying (poverty) that we reach spiritual childhood. “This state of littleness, or complete and absolute poverty is the condition for bringing about the perfect incarnation of grace in our souls; it leaves God free to accomplish in us the plenitude of grace that he has prepared for us for all eternity.” (Marie Eugene of the Child Jesus, Emmanuel: When
God walked on our land, p. 100.)

Becoming like a child is not as easy as it seems to be. It involves a real conversion to nothingness: a conversion to having pleasure in nothing, to wish to possess nothing, to desire to be nothing, to wish to know nothing. Seeing how we crave to possess every known pleasure and satisfaction, we realize that this conversion is indeed difficult. Would any of us who is earning his own money would want to return to becoming a penniless child? Would we, who have experienced the joy of independence, even want to return to a child’s dependence on his parents for his most basic needs? It is difficult to be like a child with nothing of his own. To go down this way of child-like nothingness is to pass through the narrow door.

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.