Mt 10, 37-43
“He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”
The world tells me that I will be happy if I am rich, if I have power or social prestige, if I don’t let myself be trampled, if I am cleverer than others in business, if I go from one amusement to another, if I stay out of trouble, if no one insults or persecutes me… The world assures me that the intelligent thing is to live seeking those values and that everything else is throwing life away.
Jesus, on the other hand, proposes to me a code of happiness that is totally different: Do you want to be happy…? —he says to me—, well then, be content with little, share what you have with those who have nothing, learn to suffer, always tell the truth, don’t be violent, work so that justice prevails, don’t try to take advantage of anyone… and don’t worry if they insult and persecute you for it, because in the long run you will be much happier.
There cannot be two more different ways of approaching life, and that is why, whoever decides to embrace Jesus’s criteria —and does so truly— must be willing to swim permanently against the current; to be a cause of scandal. He must accept —if he does so truly— the contempt of a ruthless society toward dissenters; deaf censorship; the label of ridiculous, outdated or childish. He must take up his cross.
And this only when his way of living is not considered dangerous, because if it bothers too much, crucifixion can be more real. Without having to go back much in history, let us remember that Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Ignacio Ellacuría, César Arnulfo Romero and so many others caused scandal and were crucified.
And why are they so dangerous to the world if what they promote is love, service, peace and concord?… Because inhumanity is so inconsistent that it cannot tolerate the light of humanity; it has to destroy it because before it, it feels ridiculed and exposed. That is why Jesus caused great scandal and was crucified on a cross. That is why Christians in the early communities were persecuted and martyred. That is why many other Christians followed in his footsteps throughout history both in witness and in martyrdom.
The mission entrusted to those of us who consider ourselves followers of Jesus consists precisely in making those criteria evident through our way of living, that is, in making evident that another way of conceiving life is possible in order to guide humanity toward fullness; toward the Kingdom. The problem is that working for the Kingdom has always produced scandal, and if we, Jesus’s delegates to promote it, cause no scandal nor are we persecuted for it, it is because something very serious is going wrong.
“He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
Miguel Ángel Munárriz Casajús
To read an article by José E. Galarreta on a similar topic, click here