If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)
The Gospels and the Church tell us to pick up our cross daily. This might seem an overwhelming task but it is not precisely because Jesus embraced His cross first before He ever asked us to copy Him.
Bearing a cross seems to be something negative at first but it always becomes a life-giving action.
For the average lay person, taking up our cross is not some grandiose, heroic action. It usually involves the boring grind of caring for family members. We fall in love, get married, have a honeymoon and then responsibilities start piling up when we drag ourselves to a job every day, buy a house, pay mountains of bills and start having kids. When I felt overwhelmed by these family responsibilities, I could have chosen abortion or divorce, seeing family life as a crushing burden but God gave me the grace to basically grow up.
Pick up Your Cross
Picking up our crosses daily is persevering through our own trials and errors. No one is perfect, but by humbling ourselves we can pick up our crosses daily just as Christ said:
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23).
Picking up our cross is not such a difficult path when we give up our all joys and sorrows to Christ. We simply look up to Jesus and just listen to Him as he said:
“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt: 11:30).
We need to understand the yoke Christ was referring to was a two-headed harness which shared the weight and involved teamwork. We don’t have to throw in the towel because we are overwhelmed by our responsibilities; we simply accept the help Jesus gives us.
