CARRY YOUR CROSS FOR A CROSS-OVER

HOMILY FOR THE 22^ND SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME OF THE YEAR, A

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

There is the story of three persons who were walking alongside one another bearing heavy crosses. As they walked, the cross became so heavy on one of them. He cried unto God and said: please God, this is so heavy on me, can you cut off some parts of this vertical part? God obliged him and did what he asked for. Going a little bit further, the same person found out that the same cross was still heavy on him. He begged God the second time to cut off the left-hand side of the horizontal part, and God obliged him the second time. He did this the third time and the right-hand side was also reduced. But there came a point where there was a rift valley. The two other persons that were also carrying theirs without begging for its reduction had to slide theirs to cross over. But the third person discovered that his cross has been so shortened that it was unable to become a ladder for him, and so he was stranded. He shouted unto God again and prayed: God help me and bring back those parts that were chopped off that I may place down my cross for a crossover. Well, it was a pity, for he could not have eaten his cake and still had it. The only condition was to go back and carry another cross, without cutting any part off. You can imagine the time he would waste, and the more energy he would spend. With this story, we come to understand the importance of carrying our crosses and holding firm to them. Those crosses may be the materials for your salvation tomorrow. 

Spurred by Peter’s reaction, Jesus clearly gave the condition for discipleship to his disciples in the gospel of today (Matt 16:21-27). After the confession of Peter at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus continued to tell his disciples how the son of man will suffer greatly and be killed and on the third day arise. Then Peter in his thought that Jesus was not wishing himself any good brought him aside and rebuked him. But Jesus rebuked him more strongly. He had not understood well the message of the cross. He was not aware that the cross of Christ was the weapon for our crossover from sin to grace, from damnation to salvation, from hatred to love, from hell to heaven, from pieces to peace, from slavery to freedom, from tears to joy, from sorrows to gladness. Jesus then spilled it out what he demands from his disciples: whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. As much as it is for the sake of Christ, that cross that seems to be crushing becomes a bridge and a ladder. It is in losing our sweat, crying out our tears, spilling our blood, that we actually gain strength, gain consolation and get rejuvenated. 

Now, what was actually the cross Jesus talked about? We must remember that Jesus desired to correct the impression in Peter that the moments of and with Christ must be glorious. He desired to put it to Peter that even though I am the Christ, there is a way that I must follow if I really want to accomplish my mission as the Messiah. It was the way of the cross. So, in this passage the cross Jesus talked about is the pains and suffering that go with following the Messiah. It must not always be palatable. We must learn to endure anything we perceive as sorrowful when we are bent on following Christ. Another point to note is that everyone has his cross to carry. Interest on the cross of the other suggests disobedience and waywardness. He must take up his own cross, Christ said. And each one of us has been given our own crosses. Do not forget you need to concentrate on your cross, and see that it crosses you over.

Suffering perfects the Christian. And so, a faithful must see suffering as a ladder for glorification. Christ was perfected through suffering (Heb. 2:10). Ellie Wiesel was a survivor of the dreaded Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz during the Second World War. He wrote of his experiences in the book The Night. In that book, he relates the harrowing story of two Jewish men and a Jewish boy hung alongside one another. Having mounted the stairs, the two adults cried: Long live liberty. But the boy was silent. Behind Wiesel someone desperately asked “where is God? Where is He? The chairs the victims were standing on were kicked out from under them and the three hung there. The adults died quickly, but the boy’s weight was not great enough to snap his neck immediately. For more than half an hour he hung there, dying in slow agony before their eyes. Again, Wiesel heard the question, where is God now? And standing there Wiesel heard a voice within himself answer: where is he? Here he is. He is hanging here on this gallows. When Wiesel said it was God hanging on the gallows, he indicated the death of his faith. For Wiesel, his faith in God died with that hanging child. But I tell you that it is in what the human eyes perceive as suffering that we are perfected as Christians. That cross these people bore became a ladder for their cross over to paradise.

However, we must work to see that we do not lay heavy burdens on our fellow human beings by way of making them suffer. As Christians, our work must be to help ease the sufferings meted on people caused by sin and by the unjust rulership of the world. We can actually assist our neighbours in carrying such crosses which can simply be termed unnecessary, and about which Jesus invites us to come and have rest (cf. Matt. 11:48). Remember that Simon of Cerene assisted Jesus in carrying that wood the unjust leaders laid upon him. A young man was once making a presentation in his class and in fact, it was his first time. While he was making the presentation, the professor handling the class noticed that he was holding his paper in the left hand while the right hand was loosely tucked inside his pocket. The professor saw this as an offensive sign of pride and instantly asked him to use his right hand or end the presentation. It was at this point that the young man raised the right arm that was inside his pocket and everyone saw that a quarter of it was cut off and that was obviously an accident. The professor seeing this came to the boy, and knelt down in the full gaze of the class and begged to be forgiven for mistaking his disability for pride. The scenario brought out tears from the eyes of many who were present. In this situation, the lecturer has added to the suffering of this young man because he was impatient to feel the other’s pain.

Finally, we must learn from the experience of Jeremiah in the First Reading (Jer. 20:7-9) who thought that the prophetic ministry would lead him to great success and attract more love from the people. He discovered it late that the prophetic ministry entails the cross. People will hate you, and will criticize, but these are the crosses we carry for the sake of God. He was almost hated and derided because he condemned evil; his messages were always that of repent or perish. It is in the context of this experience that he proclaimed: you have seduced me Lord and I have allowed myself to be seduced. The message he proclaimed became a cross he had to bear for the sake of God. This awareness was a step fotward in his understanding of his mission. When you see that suffering that comes to you, and hand it over to God, we are eased. Paul in the Second Reading (Romans 12:1-2) advices us not to be conformed to the ways of the world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, that we may easily prove what the will of God is, and what is good and acceptable and perfect. This transformation is got by the way of the cross. To understand the will of God, we must be docile to carry our crosses, for those crosses are ladders for our cross over into paradise at the end of our lives. May the crosses we bear today help us to cross over into peace, joy, holiness, success, and eternal life. Amen. God bless you.