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<\/a><\/p>\nWhile the advertising people at Nike may not have realized it, that sentiment is familiar to all of us here today.<\/p>\n
Because Jesus said it first. We heard it just a moment ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake up your cross,\u201d he says, \u201cand follow me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Jesus, of course, offers his disciples something that Nike can\u2019t: salvation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.<\/p>\n
It is a powerful message for an ad, and for all of us.<\/p>\n
But the Christian message, I should add, is not to just believe in something<\/em> \u2013 but to believe in someone<\/em>.<\/p>\nThat someone is Jesus. Believe in him \u2014 and prepare to sacrifice everything.<\/strong><\/p>\nBecause this is what it means to be Christian.<\/p>\n
It means loving your neighbor and praying for your persecutors. It means prayer and fasting.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It means feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked\u2014and 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.<\/p>\n
It means being part of the faith of saints and martyrs\u2014men and women who believed in something, and someone, and because of that sacrificed everything.<\/p>\n
It means being part of a faith that is wondrous and beautiful and merciful \u2014 but also, at times, heartbreaking.<\/p>\n
It sometimes means enduring scandal and pain \u2014 and feeling sorrow and anger.<\/p>\n
Right now, this is our cross.<\/strong><\/p>\nThis, 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<\/em>, there is more beyond this Calvary.<\/p>\nMuch more.<\/p>\n
Last week, Bishop Philip Egan, of Portsmouth, England, was asked what he would tell Catholics today amid all that\u2019s 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\u2019s all about Christ. Everything we are. Everything we do.<\/p>\n
Bishop Egan put it simply:<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep your nerve and draw closer to the person of Jesus,\u201d he said. \u201cTry 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
This really struck me: \u201cDraw closer to the person of Jesus.\u201d Yes!<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd we are never closer to him than when we are carrying our cross, walking with him to Calvary. \u00a0This should be our consolation, our assurance, our comfort. Even, I think, our hope.<\/p>\n
When we walk with him, he walks with us.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth noting that this idea of bearing the cross to follow Christ is central to our faith \u2014 literally.<\/p>\n
This particular passage in St. Mark\u2019s Gospel comes at exactly the halfway point\u2014the 8th<\/sup> chapter in a book of 16 chapters. Here, right in the heart of this Gospel, Jesus asks, \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d And the answer comes back: \u201cYou are the Christ.\u201d<\/p>\nIf we are his followers, what does that mean for us?<\/p>\n
It means it won\u2019t be easy. There will be sacrifice and suffering.<\/p>\n
There will be hardship.<\/p>\n
There will be a cross.<\/p>\n
But: there will also be a resurrection.<\/p>\n
Because the cross isn\u2019t merely an instrument of death\u2014it is also the means for our salvation.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014a defining moment that tells us \u201cThis is what it means.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also serves, I think, as a challenge to anyone who thinks Christianity is somehow supposed to be easy \u2014 those people who preach the \u201cprosperity Gospel\u201d and insist that you can attain a crown without having to bear a cross. Just have faith, they will tell you. Think prosperous thoughts.<\/p>\n
But the letter of James we heard today serves as a sharp rebuke: \u201cFaith, if it does not have works, is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scriptures this Sunday underscore this hard truth:<\/p>\n
Be faithful, yes.<\/p>\n
But be something more.<\/p>\n
Be brave. Be bold.<\/p>\n
Be believers.<\/p>\n
Be cross bearers.<\/p>\n
This is our calling!<\/p>\n
We are called to be men and women who carry our crosses, bear our burdens\u2014 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.<\/p>\n
Because, this is what it means to be a Christian.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt means giving\u2014even giving until it hurts.<\/p>\n
And it means believing\u2014even when it hurts.<\/p>\n
\u201cBelieve in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
We Catholic Christians know what that means:<\/p>\n
Believe in someone<\/em>. Believe in Jesus Christ \u2014 who showed us how to sacrifice everything \u2014 and gain eternal life.<\/p>\nMy friends, the cross is waiting. Jesus is waiting. The road is long. But Christ assures us of this: the reward is worth it.<\/p>\n
What will we do?<\/p>\n
If we believe, as Peter said, \u201cYou are the Christ\u2026,\u201d what else can we do?<\/p>\n
We take up our cross.<\/p>\n
And we follow.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":290718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[11175],"class_list":["post-290712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homilies","tag-homilies"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>