Word of Life

Written by Chiara Lubich, July 1978

 

November 2008

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and
take up their cross daily and
follow me. (Lk 9:23)

 

 

Don’t think that just because you are in the world it’s fine to take to it like a duck to water.

Don’t think that simply because the world comes into your home through radio and television, you’re entitled to listen to every programme and watch every show.

Don’t think that just because you walk through the streets of the world you can drink in all the advertisements or buy indiscriminately any book, newspaper or magazine.

Don’t think that just because you are in the world, you can live as it does: giving in to easy pleasures, vice, abortion, divorce, hatred, violence, theft…

No. No. You are in the world; no one can deny that.

But you are not of the world. (see Jn 17: 14)

This makes a huge difference. It places you among those who are nourished not on the things of this world, but on God’s voice within. That voice dwells in the heart of every human being, and it will make you enter – if you listen to it – into a kingdom that is not of this world, where true love, justice, purity, meekness and poverty are lived out, where self-control is the norm.

Why is it that many young people run off to the East, to India for example, in search of a bit of silence and the secrets of those great spiritual figures who, after a lifetime mortifying their lesser selves, are able to radiate a love that makes an impact on all who meet them?

It’s a natural reaction to the din of the world, to the noise around us and within us that leaves no space for silence where we can hear God.

But do we really have to go to the East when for two thousand years Christ has been saying ‘Deny yourself, deny yourself...’?

Christians cannot expect to lead comfortable and easy lives. Christ didn’t ask it for himself nor will he ask any less of you, if you want to follow him.

The world rushes over you like a river in flood, and you must go against the current. It’s like dense undergrowth where Christians have to step with care. Where should we place our feet? In the footsteps of Christ himself, laid down for us when he walked upon this earth. Those footsteps are his words. And today he repeats to you:

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves ….

This could well expose you to scorn, misunderstanding, ridicule, slander.
It could make you feel isolated and you might have to be ready to lose face, to give up the easy-going, socially acceptable way of being a Christian.

But there is more:

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

Whether you like it or not, every life is touched by pain, including yours.  Pain great and small comes every day.

Do you try to avoid it? Do you rebel against it? Do you feel like cursing it? Then you are not a Christian.

A Christian loves the cross, loves the pain that comes, even in the midst of tears, because they have value. It was not without reason that, out of the countless means at his disposal for saving the human race, God chose pain.

But, don’t forget, after he had carried the cross and been crucified, Jesus rose from the dead.

The resurrection is also your destiny, if instead of despising the pain brought by living up to your Christianity and all the other pain life brings, you know how to accept it with love. You will experience then that, even on this earth, the cross is the way to a joy never felt before: the life of your soul will begin to grow; the kingdom of God within you will take on greater consistency and around you, bit by bit, the world will fade before your eyes and it will appear to be mere cardboard.. And no longer will you envy anyone.

Then you will be able to call yourself a follower of Christ.

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

And like Christ whom you have followed, you will be light and love for the wounds without count that afflict the human race today.

Next Month:
‘Not my will but yours be done.’ (Lk 22: 42)