Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Josép Martinez-Cubero, OHC
Second Sunday in Lent - Sunday, February 28, 2021
In today’s Gospel lesson from Mark, Jesus predicts his death for the first time. He tells his disciples that he must undergo great suffering and be rejected and killed. I don’t know about you, but if someone tells me: “You know, coming up, I’ll be going through a lot of suffering, and rejection and then I’m going to be killed,” I’m not likely to say, “Oh really? That sucks! Thanks for letting me know. What can I do?” I’m more likely to say: “What?? No! Don’t say that! That’s not going to happen. We’re not let that happen!”
So yeah, I get Peter. I give thanks for St. Peter- honest, earnest, passionate, clumsy Peter, whose mouth seems to be ahead of his brain a lot of the time, and who also boldly says the foolish things I’ve been thinking. Peter reminds me that I don’t have to get it all the time, and it is OK to say so. I can be inadequate some of the time, or most of the time because, thankfully, we’re saved by God’s grace and not by my brilliance.
It is difficult for us today to really grasp what a blow Jesus’ words must have been for his disciples because we hear them from the far side of the first Easter, the side of resurrection and triumph. What Jesus’ disciples heard must have sounded more like, “if any want to become my followers, let them become shameful to society like the lowest of criminals, take up their cross and follow me to that place of horror, agonizing torment and pain until death is the merciful release.” Carrying one’s cross meant carrying one’s own means of the most horrid death- being stretched out and bound to a cross, bleeding, gasping for air and naked. Jesus’ disciples had seen crucifixions and they knew firsthand about the terror and the agony.
The Messiah is supposed to reveal himself in triumph and glory, trumpets and chariots of fire. That’s the story that every religious, social and historical narrative has told Peter. We can’t blame him for not getting it. For three years, the disciples have witnessed Jesus’ ability to draw in great crowds. They have seen him feed multitudes, heal the sick, raise the dead. They’ve seen him go into the temple and overturn tables and benches and drive out those who were buying and selling. They’ve heard him proclaim the arrival of a new Reign of God that will never end. Their great hope is that he will lead them in a military revolution and overthrow their Roman oppressors under whose cruelty they have lived all their lives.
We don’t know what Peter says to Jesus when he takes him aside and scolds him, but Jesus, in what is the strongest condemnation of any human being in Mark's gospel, puts Peter in his place: “Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Then Jesus turns to the crowds and captures the essence of his message in two sentences: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
What does it mean to deny myself and to save my life by losing it for Jesus’ sake in 21st century USA? No, I’m afraid it doesn’t have anything to do with giving up dessert, alcohol, sugar, Facebook or YouTube during Lent, even if those are good and helpful disciplines for some to take on. But I think it has more to do with re-ordering my priorities and principles to the way of God, who’s thoughts are not my thoughts and who’s ways are not my ways. (Isaiah 55:8) It’s no longer about saving my life or placing my self-preservation at the center of every plan and purpose.
Perhaps I can begin by acknowledging that I live in such fear of suffering and death that a great deal of my energy goes into trying to avoid both. And what is my part in a consumeristic society dominated by multi-million-dollar industries that want me and need me to deny my mortality through cosmetics, vitamins, diets, and so on? What is my part in a culture that encourages individualism and “freedom” at the expense of moral responsibility, self-giving compassion and empathy?
Jesus calls us to let go of our attachment to power, prestige, and getting ahead at the expense of others. Jesus calls us to let go of our constant need for security and self-protection, and to step out of the vicious cycles of violence that keep us from experiencing the abundant life Jesus came to give us.
Self-denial reminds us that our life is not our own. It belongs to God. To think we are in control is a total illusion. God is in control, not us. Knowing and accepting these things free us to be fully alive. Through self-denial our falling down becomes rising up, losing is saving, and death is resurrection.
How are we to take up our cross in US America? Surely it has something to do with standing at the center of the world’s pain, recognizing Christ crucified in every suffering person that surrounds us. It is about following the example of Jesus, who came to serve, not to be served, who chose to give in a world that takes, to love in a world that hates, to heal in a world that injures, to give life in a world that kills. Jesus calls us to offer mercy when others seek vengeance, forgive when others condemn, and to have compassion when others are indifferent.
As we move deeper into Lent, may we deny ourselves by giving of ourselves fully, in love, as an offering, as Jesus did. May we enter into injustice with our whole being, so we can transform it. And may we experience the abundant life Jesus offers to those who ache and weep with those who suffer. ¡Que así sea en el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo!
Amen+
