The first most fundamental question posed to us through this Scripture is this: Do you wish to come after Jesus? Unless this question is answered first, the rest of what Jesus says will have no effect upon us. So let’s look at that question.
Intellectually speaking, everyone reading this has most likely answered that question in the affirmative numerous times. Each time you go to Mass, spend time praying, or read the Scriptures you are, in one way or another, saying, “Yes, I want to come after You, Lord.” Most likely, we have all even said specific prayers by which we make the conscious choice to follow Christ. But we should see much more than the need to simply make an intellectual choice in this passage.
The phrase, “Whoever wishes” seems to reveal even more than a decision, it also reveals a desire. It reveals that a desire to follow Christ is not usually the first step in the process, it’s the last. The first step is to come to an understanding of the truth and to profess it. Secondly, we must will what we have chosen. Thirdly, once grace begins to work on us to transform us, we begin to “wish” or “desire” all that Jesus wants of us and all that He calls us to embrace.
So what will we find ourselves “wishing” if we are following Christ with our whole being? We will find that we desire what Jesus reveals next; namely, we will desire to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Do you desire that?
It’s easy to desire to love and be loved, at least on a more superficial level. Hopefully, we all enjoy kind and caring words, both giving them and receiving them. But the true love of Christ, following His example of love, requires a desire for selfless and sacrificial love. This is the perfection of love! We are called, ultimately, to love without even considering the cost or the demands that Christian love places upon us. Or, to take it even further, we are called to love even that which is painful and difficult when it is the will of God. His will most certainly includes acts of sacrifice. True love, ultimately, desires even this.
Reflect, today, upon this most fundamental question. Do you wish to come after Jesus and, therefore, are you ready and willing to embrace and even desire all that this entails. You make the choice; God will place the desire in your heart. Say “Yes” to Him and His Cross. In the end, you will be eternally grateful you did.
Lord, I want to desire Your Cross. I want to come to a level of love through which I desire to give myself completely to You, without counting the cost, and even desiring those acts which require great sacrifice. You embraced Your Cross without reserve out of love for us. Help me to imitate Your perfect example. Jesus, I trust in You.
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
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Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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