*****
“If a person wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross and follow in my foot steps.”
By now we are all-too-familiar with this invitation – and its accompanying challenge – to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, and what it requires on our part.
Perhaps, too all-too-familiar.
Ever read/listen to this admonition s-l-o-w-l-y? C-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y? Jesus does not challenge us to carry his cross. No, Jesus calls each of us to carry our own personal, particular, one-of-a-kind cross. To understand what it means to carry our crosses, we must first consider what we mean when we are considering the cross of Christ.
The “cross of Jesus Christ” was not just the cross that Jesus carried on the last day of his public ministry, the cross on which Jesus gave his life, but the cross of Jesus Christ was his entire life. The cross that Jesus carried each day was his willingness to be faithful to whom the Father called him to be and to embrace everything – success, setback and everything else in between – that came with his state, stage and mission in life.
In particular, the cross that Jesus carried was his fidelity to embracing life – and giving his life – regardless of the difficulties and challenges that frequently accompanied his efforts at proclaiming the reign of God.
Already, we are followers of Jesus. By virtue of God’s creative, redeeming and inspiring love – a love publicly demonstrated in baptism – we must take up our crosses – we must understand the person God calls us to be – and embrace all the challenges that come with giving our lives in service to others. In short, we must come to recognize our place in life, and have the courage to take it.
This fact is especially true when it comes to the challenges that we do not or would not choose: raising a difficult child, dealing with an unanticipated change of job or residence, receiving an unexpected diagnosis of a life-threatening disease or illness, working with a troublesome colleague or neighbor, fighting depression or losing a wife, husband or other loved one. St. Francis wrote: “You are quite willing to have a cross, but you want to choose what sort it is to be…I want your cross and mine to be no other than Jesus Christ’s cross, both regarding its kind and the way in which it is laid upon us.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, pp. 79 – 80)
Do you want to follow Jesus today? Then carry your cross – embrace your life deeply and fully – as it comes each day from the hands of a God who calls you to continue Jesus’ ministry in your own day: at home, at work, at school, wherever you find yourself. In the end, however, it is not enough for any of us to merely carry it. St. Francis de Sales observed: “The more wholly a cross comes from God, the more we ought to love it.” (Ibid)
*****
“I came proclaiming the mystery of God; I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom…but with a demonstration of spirit and power.”
St. Francis de Sales would certainly approve of St. Paul’s approach to “proclaiming the mystery of God”. In his letter addressed to Bishop Andre Fremyot regarding advice for preachers and preaching, the Bishop of Geneva warned against:
“…a mere tickling of the congregation’s ears, proceeding from a secular, worldly and profane style, from a kind of unconventionality or from an unusual arrangement of points, phrases and words. In a word, it is completely artificial. I make it a hard and fast rule that a preacher ought never to think of this. Let him leave such things to secular orators or actors. It isn’t Christ crucified they preach, but themselves. St. Paul cannot bear those listeners who are always looking to hear something clever or sublime, or who are looking for someone to delight them. This is sheer showmanship. When people leave the church after a sermon, they shouldn’t be saying, ‘What a fine preacher! What a wonderful memory! What a clever man! What a beautiful choice of words!’ On the contrary, they should be saying, ‘How sorry I should be for my sins! How good God is, how just!’ On so on. The only real proof of the preacher’s success that a person can give – after being greatly affected by the preaching – is the practical contributions it makes to living a better life: that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (Pulpit and Pew, pp. 39 – 40)
There are lots of ways in which we can “proclaim the mystery of God”. That being said, in the Salesian tradition there’s no mystery about what constitutes effective and authentic preaching, which has nothing to do with speaking clever words and everything to do with living convincing lives.
Whether in words or in deeds, how might we “proclaim the mystery of God” today in ways that give life -especially, life to the full?
*****
“We have the mind of Christ…”
What does it mean to “have the mind of Christ”? What does the “mind of Christ” look like?
Today’s Gospel certainly provides a practical answer, powerfully portrayed!
Look how Jesus used his God-given power - the power of both word and action. He didn’t use it for his own aggrandizement; Jesus used it for the benefit of others. If his audience was “astonished at his teaching,” one can only imagine how astonished they must have been when Jesus expelled an unclean demon from a man in the synagogue! Jesus’ “one-two punch” approach to preaching – employing both word and action – stood in stark contrast to the preaching of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes which Jesus himself criticized as being too long on words and too short on action.
What does it look like when “we have the mind of Christ”? When we both speak like Christ and act like Christ, that is, when we not only wish people well – in words – but also do what we can – in actions – to make our wish for others’ welfare a reality.
*****
“We are God’s co-workers…”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“God acts in our works, and we co-operate in God’s action. God leaves for our part all the merit and profit of our services and good works; we leave God all the honor and praise thereof, acknowledging that the growth, the progress, and the end of all the good we do depends on God’s mercy, finishing what God had begun. O God, how merciful is God’s goodness to us in thus distributing his bounty!” (TLG, Book XI, Chapter 6, p. 212)
It would be enough if God simply made us the recipients of his mercy and generosity, but in his wisdom, God has also made us the agents or instruments of his mercy and generosity. Our common vocation is not simply limited to enjoying the gift of creation, but rather we are called to nurture it, care for it, shepherd it and grow it! God works in and through us; we work in and through God’s action. To us come all of the benefits, but to God goes all of the glory.
Who could ask for a better arrangement than that?
We are – in word and in deed – God’s co-workers. We celebrate both God’s generosity to us and share that generosity with others.
How might God employ our cooperation in both receiving – and sharing – his bounty today?
*****
“If anyone among you considers himself wise, let him become a fool, so as to become wise…”
This apparent paradox – wisdom as foolishness, foolishness as wisdom – is found in both the Old and New Testaments. Of course, it is “worldly” wisdom that is foolish, whereas divine “foolishness” is, in truth, authentic wisdom. Put another way, when our “wisdom” makes us the center of the universe, we are truly the most foolish of men. By contrast, when we are so “foolish” as to make God the center of the universe, it is only then that we can hope to become truly wise.
Francis de Sales was no stranger to this paradox. In his Introduction to the Devout Life, he wrote:
“We recognize genuine goodness as we do genuine balm. If balm sinks down and stays at the bottom when dropped into water, it is rated the best and most valuable. So also, in order to know whether a person is truly wise, learned, generous and noble, we must observe whether his abilities tend to humility, modesty, and obedience for in that case they will be truly good. If they float on the surface and seek to show themselves they are so much less genuine insofar as they are showier. People’s virtues and fine qualities when conceived and nurtured by pride, show and vanity have the mere appearance of good without juice, marrow and solidity. Honors, dignities and rank are like saffron, which thrives best and grows most plentifully when trodden under foot. It is no honor to be handsome if a person prizes himself for it; if beauty is to have good grace, it should be unstudied. Learning dishonors us when it inflates our minds and degenerates into mere pedantry. Just as honor is an excellent thing when given to us freely, so, too, it becomes base when demanded, sought after and asked for.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 4, pp. 132-133)
So, ask yourself the question: “Does my wisdom inflate my mind, or does it tend to humility, modesty and obedience?” If your answer is the former, you may be far more foolish than you know. By contrast, if your answer is the latter, you may be far wiser than you ever thought possible.
*****
“Do not make any judgment before the appointed time…”
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales makes a direct reference to this admonition from St. Paul, when he wrote:
“‘No,’ says the Apostle, ‘judge not before the time until the Lord comes, when He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsel of hearts.’ The judgments of the children of men are rash because they are not the judges of one another, and when they pass judgments on others they usurp the office of the Lord. They are rash because the principal malice of sin depends on the intention and counsel of the heart, and to us they are the hidden things of darkness. They are rash because every man has enough on which he ought to judge himself without taking it upon him to judge his neighbor. To avoid future judgment it is equally necessary both to refrain from judging others and to judge ourselves.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 28, pp. 196-197))
Note that Paul is willing to go even a step further than St. Francis de Sales when it comes to making judgments. The former goes so far as to say, “I do not even pass judgment on myself”. In the big scheme of things, each of us has more than enough on our own plate each day just trying to live our lives as best we can without spending extra time and energy (that we really don’t have) judging ourselves and others. Besides, who are we to judge? After all, as both St. Paul and St. Francis de Sales point out, it is God who is the one and only just judge.
Just today, try and remember this: whether toward others or ourselves, judging is simply above our pay grade.
*****
“Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,
which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”
In today’s Gospel, some Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of breaking the Sabbath by picking heads of grain in order to feed themselves. The Pharisees seem to suggest that in life you must choose between what is reasonable and what is right. As he frequently did, Jesus turned the Pharisees’ rationale on its head by suggesting that that which is most reasonable is often most lawful.
In the Salesian tradition, we know this position as “liberty of spirit”. In a letter to St. Jane de Chantal, Francis cites examples to describe this “liberty of spirit”:
“Bishop Spiridion of old once took in a famished pilgrim during the season of Lent. There was nothing available to eat except salt meat, so the bishop had some cooked and served it to the pilgrim. The visitor did not want to take the meat in spite of his hunger, so, out of charity, Spiridion ate some first so as to remove the pilgrim’s scruples by his example. Here we see the loving freedom of a holy man. In another example, Ignatius Loyola ate meat on Wednesday in Holy Week because the doctor ordered it and thought it expedient for some trouble that Ignatius was having. A person of scrupulous mind would have contested this point for at least a good three days.” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 73)
Consumed as they were about not breaking any laws, the Pharisees almost always placed this concern way ahead of meeting the needs of others. By contrast, Jesus was convinced that meeting the needs of others was the fulfillment of the law. Francis de Sales put it this way (in all caps, by the way!):
Try your level best to observe God’s Law today. Above all, try your level best to observe the greatest of all God’s Laws – the Law of Love.
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