In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Our world has never known such wealth as we enjoy today. We have access to a variety of food even kings and nobility from a few hundred years ago could not enjoy. We have lighting which enables us to carry on our day late into the evening, devices which give us access to huge swathes of human knowledge, vehicles which can transport us gigantic distances, hospitals where—without payment—medical science has learned to cure a vast array of illnesses and diseases.
And yet our society still has many who struggle: with poverty, with mental health, with loneliness, with a lack of direction or purpose and ultimately with ageing and death. We have so much to bring happiness to each other—entertainment in so many forms—while many are miserable, frightened and alone.
The Lord said: ‘If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’
And the world is scandalised: why would anyone do that? But, perhaps, there are some who have tried chasing happiness all their lives—one dopamine fix until the next—and have realised its futility. Our world has been chasing happiness and made itself miserable, chasing rewards and found them not enough, chasing relationships and been rejected. And having gone through all these experiences Christ is present and offers to all, but especially to you and to me, the Cross. He is saying to us,
You have chased happiness, chased ecstasy, and they have not satisfied you: if you would be my disciple take up your own cross and follow me.
And he explains his calling to us, “For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” Our society is yearning to gain the whole world. But if we want true joy, true existence, true being, we need to take up our crosses. And if we do this, allowing shame to course over our very selves, then the Lord will not be ashamed of us on the Last Day.
Let us, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, take up our crosses with joy, and let us share the Cross with those around us who seek true Life in this world of corruption. Let us carry our crosses—our trials and tribulations—that we be found worthy heirs of eternal Life.
That we may offer true glory, honour and worship to our crucified and risen God and Saviour Jesus Christ, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
— Galatians 2:16–20
The Lord said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.
— Mark 8:34–38, 9:1