The cross is the tree of life because it is where Jesus fulfilled his triumph over death. However, reaching this life requires from you a big effort during all your life on earth, and this is what Mark the Evangelist said in today’s reading: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”. The expression “whoever wants to be my disciple” means that you can choose to walk behind the Lord and his words, or choose to refuse this journey. But if you wanted to follow him, you must deny yourself and your lusts and leave all your desires and repent. Without all of this, you are not on the road of the cross. You shall not have anymore a self-closed and a self-attached ego.
You also know that in your world there are big crosses on which you must be crucified. You might have problems with your family sometimes. The man could be a cross for his woman and the woman could be a cross for her man. Sometimes, you also have a cross in your professional and patriotic life. You might have illnesses or discomforts. Here, Lord Jesus says: “whoever wants to save their lifewill lose it”. Saving yourself from sin requires a lot of fatigue and daily struggle. There is no day in your life in which you don’t confront the temptation and attraction of sin.
These corrupt things that you face must not enter your soul, and if they did, you must kick them out. Therefore, the Savior said after that: “whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it”. If you were attached only to Jesus, you will be able to lose your life, and this means losing your sins and desires.
Then our lord takes us to the climax when he says: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” What good is it for you if you gained a lot of money, power and notability and enjoyed all the pleasures without leaving a place in your heart for God? Here, he uses the word “world” in the sense of the “corruption of the world”. You are invited to choose between gaining God and gaining the world.
In this spiritual war that you are having against the evil that’s coming towards you or that entered into you, you must know that you belong to Christ and that if you were so, you would be starting to enter the Kingdom on earth because “the kingdom of God is within you”. You declare that you are for Christ if someone asked you to reveal your identity. You declare that you believe in Jesus and that all your thought is based on him.
The consolation that Jesus gave to his lovers in this speech is that some of them will not die until they “see that the kingdom of God has come with power”. Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, and this kingdom has come with his coming because with his teaching we started entering the kingdom and its miracles. But when he said: “The kingdom of God will come with power” he was referring to his death and Resurrection. This is when the Church will be founded and the Holy Spirit will descend on the disciples, and if people accepted baptism, the Church shall grow and give Christ’s body and blood, i.e. the Kingdom of God will extend in the souls. The Church is the entrance to the Kingdom through the Gospel and Holy Sacraments. The kingdom of God grows in the Church and is completed in heaven where we shall witness God face to face.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “الصليب” –Raiati 38- 18.09.2011
