Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent & Easter
by Ron Rolheiser, OMI

“Today you have accepted the Lord’s agreement: he will be your God, and you will walk in his ways, observe his statutes, commandments, and ordinances, and obey his voice”.

(DEUTERONOMY 26:17)

“Among Jesus’ many teachings we find this rather harsh-sounding invitation: ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me’ (Matthew 16:24).

Part of that means accepting that suffering is a part of our lives. Accepting our cross and giving up our lives means that, at some point, we have to make peace with the unalterable fact that frustration, disappointment, pain, misfortune, illness, unfairness, sadness, and death are part of our lives and must ultimately be accepted without bitterness. As long as we nurse the notion that pain in our lives is something we need not accept, we will habitually find ourselves bitter because we did not accept the cross.

Taking up your cross and being willing to give up your life means living in a faith that believes nothing is impossible for God. Indeed, whenever we succumb to the notion that God cannot offer us a way out of our pain into some kind of newness, it’s precisely because we have reduced God down to the size of our own limited imagination. It’s only possible to accept our cross, to live in trust, and to not grow bitter inside pain if we believe in possibilities beyond what we can imagine, namely if we believe in the resurrection.

We can take up our cross when we begin to believe in the resurrection” (13).