THE JESUS' CHALLENGE

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Father’s Day

Zec 12: 10-11; 13:1 / Ps 63 / Gal 3: 26 – 29 / Lk 9: 18 – 24

Every day in life, we face challenges. For students to wake up early to make it to school on time is an everyday challenge. For parents to adequately provide for the family is an everyday concern. For some, seeing their faces in front of the mirror is an eternal challenge, and I guess you know why…

But over and above these daily challenges is the challenge which Jesus proposes in our Gospel today. He said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

These words are easy to memorize but have we asked ourselves if we are we ready to take up the challenge? We have to take note that prior to this challenge of Jesus, he asked his disciples about his identity: “Who do you say that I am?”

You see, Christian discipleship means (1) knowledge about who Jesus is and (2) responding to the challenge that this wonderful discipleship brings.

For this Sunday, we shall not reflect on the identity of Jesus. Let us rather reflect on our response to this call of discipleship: “SELF-DENIAL” and “TAKING UP THE CROSS DAILY.”

“Self-Denial”

It has been part of our human nature to “think only of self.” Every day, we accumulate things and even people all for ourselves: I have to get this cellphone because I need it bahala na ug inutang (never mind if it is on credit). I need you because I want your money, bahala ug bati ka ug nawong – pakaslan (never mind if you are ugly, I’ll marry you)!

The very first requirement of following Jesus is self-denial. Now, denying oneself does not mean hating or leaving the world. Rather, as John Paul II reminds us, denying oneself means accepting the reality that only Jesus can give us fullness of life; denying oneself means considering all that we have right now as gifts from the Good Lord. And as we do this, we become less of ourselves and closer to Jesus, Himself!

“Taking up the cross daily”

No one among you here would like to “take up your cross daily,” right? “Taking up our crosses daily” is not about experiencing pain in order to please God. It is not to suffer for suffering sake! Taking up one’s cross daily means to suffer because of love, and with love. John Paul II again reminds us that “love is the condition for following Him, but it is sacrifice that is the proof of that love.” What makes you a good disciple is not because you enjoy suffering. You are a good disciple because of your love despite the suffering.

A Barangay Captain who is at the same time the president of a church organization in her community shared to me her experience. Matod niya: “Padre, dili man gyud malikayan ang mga problema sa pamilya. Pero ang mas nakalisud kay bisag problema sa uban ako ng ipamahaw, ipaniudto, ug ipanihapon. Kung dili ni gugma dre, dugay rakong namatay!” (According to her: I cannot escape from the problems of family but what is more challenging is while attending to others, their problems have become part of my breakfast, lunch and dinner. If this is not about love, then I must have been dead a long time ago.) She said she has been used to this kind of life.

To me, that Barangay Captain is but one of the many Christians who have responded to the challenge Jesus presented more than two thousand years ago: ““If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

I am sure some of you here have tried the “ice bucket challenge,” or “the running man challenge,” or the “tatlong bibe challenge,” or the “trumpet challenge.”

But have you tried Jesus’ challenge? – Deny yourself and take up his cross daily! Amen.