The Deacon's Bench
A couple weeks ago, Nike set out to sell some sneakers. The result ended up causing a sensation.
The company released a new ad starring the controversial quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The people at Nike clearly thought he would make people pay attention.
And he did. For days, the ad was the talk of the Internet.
While the man in the ad has gotten most of the attention, and sparked a lot of controversy, what has been lost in much of this is the message. It shouldn’t be. This ad has something to say to each of us this morning.
The marketing campaign was designed to mark the 30th anniversary of Nike’s groundbreaking slogan: “Just Do It.”
This new ad takes that concept a step further. It sends out a message of defiance. But it is also a message of courage and conviction — and cost.
The text reads:
“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Just do it.”
While the advertising people at Nike may not have realized it, that sentiment is familiar to all of us here today.
Because Jesus said it first. We heard it just a moment ago.
“Take up your cross,” he says, “and follow me.”
But Jesus, of course, offers his disciples something that Nike can’t: salvation.
“Whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”
Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.
It is a powerful message for an ad, and for all of us.
But the Christian message, I should add, is not to just believe in something – but to believe in someone.
That someone is Jesus. Believe in him — and prepare to sacrifice everything.
Because this is what it means to be Christian.
It means loving your neighbor and praying for your persecutors. It means prayer and fasting.
It means turning the other cheek and giving away your cloak and bending to bandage the broken, bleeding man by the side of the road.
It means feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked—and doing it because this is what we believe, because this is what was passed on to us by the son of God, a man who fed multitudes and rose from the dead and feeds us now, still, with his own body and blood.
It means being part of the faith of saints and martyrs—men and women who believed in something, and someone, and because of that sacrificed everything.
It means being part of a faith that is wondrous and beautiful and merciful — but also, at times, heartbreaking.
It sometimes means enduring scandal and pain — and feeling sorrow and anger.
Right now, this is our cross.
This, too, we bear. We bear it with prayer. With hope. And with love. Because we have been baptized into a faith that believes, that knows, there is more beyond this Calvary.
Much more.
Last week, Bishop Philip Egan, of Portsmouth, England, was asked what he would tell Catholics today amid all that’s happening in the church right now. He echoed something our own Bishop Sanchez said just last weekend, when he reminded us that our faith is not about men, or offices, or titles. It’s all about Christ. Everything we are. Everything we do.
Bishop Egan put it simply:
“Keep your nerve and draw closer to the person of Jesus,” he said. “Try to reach a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Be totally dependent on prayer. Be committed to serving the poor and needy.”
This really struck me: “Draw closer to the person of Jesus.” Yes!
And we are never closer to him than when we are carrying our cross, walking with him to Calvary. This should be our consolation, our assurance, our comfort. Even, I think, our hope.
When we walk with him, he walks with us.
It’s worth noting that this idea of bearing the cross to follow Christ is central to our faith — literally.
This particular passage in St. Mark’s Gospel comes at exactly the halfway point—the 8th chapter in a book of 16 chapters. Here, right in the heart of this Gospel, Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” And the answer comes back: “You are the Christ.”
If we are his followers, what does that mean for us?
It means it won’t be easy. There will be sacrifice and suffering.
There will be hardship.
There will be a cross.
But: there will also be a resurrection.
Because the cross isn’t merely an instrument of death—it is also the means for our salvation.
Two days ago, we marked the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, followed yesterday by the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, the Queen of Martyrs, our parish feast day. This Gospel could serve as a final coda, a kind of punctuation mark to those feasts —a defining moment that tells us “This is what it means.”
It also serves, I think, as a challenge to anyone who thinks Christianity is somehow supposed to be easy — those people who preach the “prosperity Gospel” and insist that you can attain a crown without having to bear a cross. Just have faith, they will tell you. Think prosperous thoughts.
But the letter of James we heard today serves as a sharp rebuke: “Faith, if it does not have works, is dead.”
The scriptures this Sunday underscore this hard truth:
Be faithful, yes.
But be something more.
Be brave. Be bold.
Be believers.
Be cross bearers.
This is our calling!
We are called to be men and women who carry our crosses, bear our burdens— and who do it out of love, helping those others to bear their cross when we meet them along the road. This includes the poor, the marginalized, the abused, the abandoned.
Because, this is what it means to be a Christian.
It means giving—even giving until it hurts.
And it means believing—even when it hurts.
“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”
We Catholic Christians know what that means:
Believe in someone. Believe in Jesus Christ — who showed us how to sacrifice everything — and gain eternal life.
My friends, the cross is waiting. Jesus is waiting. The road is long. But Christ assures us of this: the reward is worth it.
What will we do?
If we believe, as Peter said, “You are the Christ…,” what else can we do?
We take up our cross.
And we follow.
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