Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- The Reality of Our Cross

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 8.5.22 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 16:24–28

Friends, in our Gospel for today, Jesus outlines the cost of becoming his disciple:
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
We have a very antiseptic view of the cross,
for we have seen it for so long as a religious symbol.

But for the first nine centuries or so of the Christian dispensation,
artists didn’t depict the cross, for it was just too brutal.
Say what you want about the violence in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ—
it probably came as close as any work of art
to showing the reality of a Roman crucifixion.

But here’s the point:
We are meant to see on that cross not simply a violent display
but rather our own ugliness.
What brought Jesus to the cross?
Stupidity, anger, mistrust, institutional injustice, betrayal of friends,
denial, unspeakable cruelty, scapegoating, and fear.
In other words, all of our dysfunction is revealed on that cross.
In the light of the cross, no one can say the popular philosophy of our times,
“I’m okay and you’re okay.”
This is why we speak of the cross as God’s judgment on the world.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wishes to come after me
must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life
will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my
sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one
to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange
for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with
his angels in his Father’s glory,
and then he will repay each
according to his conduct.
Amen, I say to you,
there are some standing here who will not taste death
until they see the Son of Man coming
in his Kingdom.”+++

[Ken Regis]

What brought Jesus to the cross?

My sin.