The Church marked Ash Wednesday on 02nd March 2022 and officially began the 6-week spiritual journey into the desert with the Lord Jesus. On this day, many put on their sackcloth and cover themselves in ashes to signify repentance, confession of sins, and profession of our devotion to the Lord God. On this day, we prepare ourselves for a season of 40 days of fasting or self-sacrifice, prayer, and almsgiving. The next day, we celebrate the Mass of the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, where the Gospel reading (cf. Luke 9:22-25) begins with the Lord Jesus talking openly about His Passion, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised on the third day” (Luke 9:22).
We start this journey with the Lord being sensitive in sharing with us about His own sufferings. He knows that this path is lonely and dark. He knows that it leads to death on a Cross. He nonetheless encourages each of us to understand that none of us is alone. Once we embark on this journey, we have a companion to stumble with through the valley of the shadow of death (cf. Psalm 23:4). The good news is that He has already walked this way before us. He knows where and when the stumbling blocks will appear. All we need to do is to follow Him; walk in His footsteps. Even when we do not see Him, we are assured that He is there. And even when we do not feel it, He surely is there. He never leaves us alone. He always watches over us. He is always beside us. If we let Him, He will hold our hand. This holding will certainly not take the pain away, but it will help us to bear it patiently.
Greater Love bears Greater Suffering
The Lord Jesus goes further and gives us a few tips and tricks of surviving the journey. He makes a not so appealing invitation to any that want to become His followers, that they must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and only then follow Him. We know how denying ourselves the little things that we like can be a struggle. Yet the Lord says that we must do this on a daily basis.
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).
This is the way that we must take if we are to discover our hidden inner self. The outer self that encourages our vanity must be denied so that the inner self can energize our hearts in love and justice. There is no negating the fact that any suffering we experience will be painful, but we must focus on how purifying it is. Life inevitably presents us with moments of suffering. No one passes through this life without some form of suffering. However, life also teaches us that where there is the greatest love that is where you find the greatest suffering. Picture this – the people who are most likely to cause you the most hurt are them that you love the most. This is why He who referred to Himself as the Son of Man, is the one who suffers the most for we who He loves the most.
Is it nothing to all you who pass this way? Look and see if there is any pain like my pain which was inflicted on me, with which the Lord tormented me on the day of His fierce anger (Lamentations 1:12).
If we have enjoyed good health in life, this is the time that we bow our heads in gratitude to the Giver of Life. And this should also lead us to have great sympathy for those who still carry an ongoing burden of painful suffering.
Temptations Await
In the quest to deny ourselves and take up the cross daily, we must not fall for the temptation to go looking for mortifications. The cross we must each first identify is that of myself and my ego. I must learn to cope with me (physical), myself (soulful), and I (spiritual) aspects of my life without necessarily trampling on others or making them suffer on my account. Then only can I think of suffering for another. When the gospels present the Lord Jesus as giving His life over to God the Father, my mind considers much of what I would rather hold onto in this life. But the words of the Lord Jesus remind me that these can swiftly be taken away from me. My good health, my security of wealth, my good name, my faithful partner, my position in society….these can be taken away. But the things that we share in the love of God cannot be taken away.
If therefore I ask in prayer for the grace to value love and to offer my life now and always only in love and for love, then I am assured of God’s protection. The Lord Jesus speaks of His convictions and preaching leading to His death. But He is certain that His resurrection lies in the divine power of His Father. When we take up our cross, it is not a matter of merely putting up with the ordinary troubles and pains of life. It also includes being prepared to be true followers of Christ despite the dangers and the implied possibility of martyrdom (dying with Christ). It includes not being ashamed of the Lord Jesus. In the likely event that I do deny the Lord Jesus in order to try and save my sorry skin, the danger of losing eternal life looms high. The sheer thought that the intimate union we have with God will be forever lost is insufferable.
Beware of Detractions
We already know from the Gospels that the disciples of Jesus were variously tempted by the prospect of the Lord Jesus inaugurating a new political dispensation. After all, this was the expectation of their fellow Jews of the Messiah that they were awaiting (cf. John 6:15). His popularity attracted multitudes of people and among these were fervent political activists whose agenda was to be king-makers for Israel. They wanted to use the Lord Jesus for their own ends. Their goals were temporal and materialistic. They certainly were neither eternal nor God-centred. The Lord denies them this opportunity and instead sends His disciples out to sea to save His team from the political ambitions of this crowd that has no qualms about changing God’s purpose for Him and His people (cf. John 6:45). Thus, He leaves the crowd and goes up the mountain to be alone, away from these wannabe kingmakers.
With Eyes Firmly Fixed on the Goal
What is interesting is Peter’s reaction when Jesus speaks of the suffering He will undergo (cf. Matthew 16:16). Peter, who just recently had identified Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of the living God is now dangerously backtracking. To think that Peter, who was even praised for having this revelation, has the courage to chastise his Master for saying such things as being rejected and dying. Unfortunately, his insistence that this shall never happen to you is based on his own assumptions and not the truth. It earns him a devastating rebuke from the Lord.
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns (Matthew 16:23).
This is why the Lord Jesus warns us that if we are to follow Him we must be ready and willing to give up everything else in this world and to take on hardships and persecutions as needed. We must expect dangers and threats. We can attempt to read this passage and take it simply as a prophecy of the suffering of the Lord. But it might be a better prospect if we take it as an equally unexpected prophecy of glory. Suddenly the stakes will change and He who is crucified will be raised from the dead (cf. Luke 9:22). As followers of Christ, this puts us on a totally different plane. Anyone follower who enters into this resurrected Kingdom gains a prize more precious than the world and all the kingdoms within it.
Save and Lose, or Lose and Save
The reading concludes with the declaration that it does no good to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit oneself.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, this is the one who will save it. For what good does it do a person if he gains the whole world, but loses or forfeits himself? (Luke 9:25).
The earthly life holds so many challenges. We face fears for ourselves and for our families. With them comes the temptation to give up, to fall apart, to despair. But faith tells us to rise up to them; to shoulder our daily crosses with courage; to remember that we are not alone; to know that the Lord Jesus shares the load with us. We must learn from the Lord. He did not give up on mankind and abandon us to our wickedness. No, He stayed on course. This Lent we must learn to endure. We can face suffering and accept it patiently or we can deny it and try to reject it. We can cocoon ourselves to avoid pains and hurts or we can embrace the world with love and risk failures, betrayals, and disappointments from those we try to serve. The hurting is sure to be short-lived and then comes the eternal blessing with deep contentment and joy….not from possessions and positions as the world offers; but in being hospitable, generous, sharing, and appreciative of the goodness of life. You just follow the Lord Jesus and you end up gaining the whole world!
Take-Home
It is clear from the Gospel that followers of Christ must embrace suffering and self-displacement. As the Lord goes on the Way of the Cross, He does not amass His life but lives generously. He invites us to have a share in this life. He calls us also to a radically counter-cultural way of life. Honestly, this life needs the grace of God. Without it, I am but a mean, self-seeking, self-absorbed, self-advancing egotistic being. We need to let go of this sort of life. We must learn to accept life in a loving spirit as He did. Only then can we be a source of good to others. This Lent provides us with opportunities to do just this. Go on and stumble along; you are in good company.
