The Cross? “God Forbid!”

Pastor’s Column

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

September 15,2024

At this Jesus turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said,

“Get behind me, Satan. You’re thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”      

from Mark 8:27–35

God forbid this should happen to you. What is the normal human reaction when a good friend or loved one gives us some bad news? We might say something like Peter did to Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel: God forbid this should happen to you, Lord! Jesus had been trying to tell the disciples that there was great suffering in store for him in the near future, and that it would come from the least likely place, the religious authorities. Of course, the disciples don’t want to hear this, they don’t believe it, and then they deny it when it does finally begin to register in their minds. We often do this too when faced with trials.

When I was in college and praying about my vocation, I lived in Los Angeles. In the hills and mountains surrounding the city at that time were many beautiful large white crosses (if you knew where to look!), and I began seeking them out; hiking up to them as a kind of discernment process and to take pictures (these pictures are still in my chapel). A beautiful white cross up in the hills can make the cross seem romantic and challenging, and so were some of those hikes, but time and greater wisdom has made the cross seem much less romantic to me now.

The real crosses, the ones we cannot avoid in our lives, are seldom attractive in and of themselves. We are so used to seeing a crucifix as Catholics that we can forget just how awful it was for the disciples to watch and for Jesus to go through. Far from being romantic, when a friend, loved one or we ourselves cannot avoid suffering, we instinctively cry out with Peter, God forbid that this should happen. Yet it does happen, and one can go so far as to say that these events somehow express the will of God for us in our lives.

Love consists in what we have gone through with someone in life. It is only in this world, and not in another, that we can voluntarily share in something difficult for the Lord.  So many today seem to seek mainly themselves and their own will. What does Christ say about such a life? Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel discovers who he really is. If I cannot be there for a loved one or friend when they are suffering (or Christ!), do I really love them? Or am I seeking only myself? Will I resign my volunteer duties at the church when things don’t go my way? Perhaps I am seeking mainly myself! Do I stop praying when trials seem overwhelming, and God seems absent? Maybe God is testing and proving my friendship. Love, commitment and friendship are proved not just in the good times, but by the crosses we go through voluntarily, and persevere in them out of love.

Father Gary