The great Jesuit pacifist, Dan Berrigan SJ tells us quite clearly:

If you want to follow Jesus and be a true Christian, you had better look good on wood.

Jesus is part of a long line of prophets who never got to enjoy retirement. The prophet generally does not get their long service watch as a sign of dedication. Their challenging words hit raw nerves, especially with leaders and the elite. The great Russian author, Dostoyevsky was sentenced to death for made up crimes against the state: like so many before and since, he was found guilty on the lies of his enemies. The sentence was commuted, and he ended up in a concentration camp, unable to write. After ten years he was released and, emboldened by his experience of prison, found that his writing had actually improved. He now had years of suffering and experience to draw on. He was questioned once about his right to speak up against social injustice in his native land. Dostoyevsky simply rolled up his trouser leg and pointed to the vivid scars left by his chains of oppression: his body showed the hatred that many still experience, as the war in Ukraine proves.

The difficult words that Jesus uses in the gospel today as we try to comprehend what Jesus means by 'hating' your family, as you try to follow Him. We could understand Dostoyevsky hating the Russian authorities and those who committed perjury against him. However, even in the trauma of the worst of Soviet gulags, he recognised that it was this experience that helped him to offer his most creative writing, as he was able to reflect:

Prison saved me…it was there that I came to see myself clearly, and it was there I came to understand Christ…it was a good school, as it strengthened my faith and awakened my love for those who bear their suffering with patience.

Like Don Bosco, we do not deliberately look for a cross of pain and suffering—it will come our way, often in the most unsuspecting of circumstances. Just look at the past couple of years, and how a tiny virus totally destroyed our lives! It is in embracing our brokenness, we can live the totality of our Christian life—from the very rough and downright unfair and hurting, to the joys of living fully as a child of God, enjoying the divine embrace and the love of others.

Even those closest to Jesus found the Way of Christ hard—when He walked that Via Delarosa, they were hiding in the Upper Room. It was left to the women, the young John, and strangers like Veronica and Simon of Cyrene to offer that final comfort. Throughout the gospel message, we find hope in our own inadequacy. Forgiveness is freely given, and we all get that second chance—we even get a 247th chance because that is how big the heart of God is. In accepting your cross today, pray, especially at Communion time, that you will have strength and broad shoulders when needed. Our life is a continual call to conversion, as Pope Francis reminds us:

Not doing what I want, but what Jesus wants; following Jesus. And He says that on this path, we lose our life, in order to gain it back later.

Author: Fr Gerry O'Shaughnessy SDB

Photo by Zulmaury Saavedra on Unsplash