The gospel passage we heard in mass on Sunday, July 2 (Matthew 10:37-42) contains a
sentence that always gives me pause: “whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me
is not worthy of me,” Jesus said.
A couple of years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend who is a Catholic priest and I
mentioned something about “carrying my cross” related to a hardship in my life. Fr. John looked
at me and said, “I don’t think that was what Jesus was talking about when He referenced
carrying the cross.” He pointed out that Jesus did not carry the cross because of the usual
hardships that are part of our human condition: illness, death of loved ones, problems in
relationships. Jesus was condemned to die by the religious and political authorities because He
spoke and acted out against the norms of his day that imposed heavy burdens on people.
Some of those norms Jesus criticized included being kind to friends but unkind to strangers,
storing up wealth while others go hungry, judging people harshly while not understanding their
true circumstances, and observing purity customs that wound and exclude certain people
(people who broke the law, for example, or had repulsive illnesses). In particular, He spoke out
against the hypocrisy of the wealthy and religiously observant, who lived in relative comfort and
isolated themselves from the poor, marginalized, and excluded people around them.
Thus, the cross that Jesus speaks of is not about my burdens but the heavy, unjust burdens that
other people carry. Jesus says that if I am not willing to do what I can to lift the heavy burdens
off the shoulders of others then I am not His follower and not worthy of Him. Ouch!
The question for me is, do I consistently take the trouble to do what I can to alleviate the
burdens of other people? In my personal life, when I see someone suffering, am I willing to put
myself at some inconvenience to cook a meal or run errands or lend money to them? Am I
willing to speak up when I see someone treated unfairly or judged harshly, even by my friends
or family? Do I use my voice, my time, my vote to weigh in on the side of fairness for the poor
and the migrant, for the unborn baby as well as for the convicted criminal on death row? Whose
cross am I willing or unwilling to carry, and what does that say about whether I follow Jesus?
These questions can seem overwhelming, but luckily the Holy Spirit is there to help me see, day
by day, what I am called to do. Nowadays, I seldom do long, complicated intercessory prayers,
because God knows what we need before we ask for it. Instead, I ask Him each morning to
show me how and where I am to love and to give me the strength to do it. I trust
He will show me for whom I should carry the cross that day.