Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory.
With the angels.
Ashamed of me and of my words, our Lord says.
Specifically, what does that mean?
Well, we can appreciate it more fully if we remember what our Lord says at the beginning of the Gospel,
where he summons his disciples and the crowd together and says,
Whoever wishes to come after me,
that is, to be my disciple, my student,
that is, whoever wishes to listen to my words and follow me,
must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
And so, the doctrine of our Lord and his own example is the cross.
A few days ago, our Lord spoke of a faithless and sinful generation,
as he does today, and it was in the context of those who ask for signs.
It is a faithless and sinful generation that asks for signs,
and no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonas,
which is the cross, which is the cross and the resurrection.
For us, as I said in that homily, it is also the Eucharist and the sacramental life.
That's the sign and the grace and the providence that God gives,
that God gives to us.
That's the sign and the grace and the providence that God gives to us.
And he gives it to us so that we can follow his example and his words.
His examples and his words are epitomized when our Lord says,
whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
I'd like to point out that when our Lord said these words in reference to the cross,
there was no cross.
We look backwards, knowing the whole history of the cross,
knowing the whole history of our Lord's life, death, and resurrection,
and understand what he says in that whole context.
So we understand what he means when he says,
pick up my cross, you must pick up your cross and carry it,
if you wish to be my disciple.
But at that time, there had been no crucifixion, death, and resurrection.
The cross was not the symbol that it is for us today.
It wasn't something people put on their walls or carried on their person.
It was only after our Lord's resurrection,
that this became the custom and the fullness of our Lord's words could be understood.
But our Lord said it then, in that manner, so that it would be remembered.
He said it as much for us, and perhaps even more for us,
than he did for the people who originally heard the words.
Because he wanted us always to remember that the measure of our faith,
the measure of our faith,
the measure of our fidelity,
will be in terms of the dimensions of our Lord's cross.
Our willingness to pick it up and carry it.
Our willingness to appreciate the wisdom and the grace of God.
Our Lord talks a little bit about economics when he makes this commandment to his apostles.
He says,
Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it.
And we're constantly making efforts to satisfy ourselves,
to protect ourselves against suffering.
And our Lord's saying this is bad economics.
It's a bad economy.
It's a bad way of measuring things and of saving up for the kingdom of God.
He says we have to lose everything if we are to find it and if we are to be saved.
And our Lord wants us to be filled.
He wants us ultimately to find.
But we will only find in the measure that we are open to unconditional love,
unconditional love,
unconditional love,
and unconditional dedication to him,
which means that we are willing to accept whatever he sends us.
We are willing to go down whatever path he leads us.
We are willing to bear up under whatever burden he places on our shoulders,
because in the end we know that he knows better than we do,
and that he has a providence and a purpose and everything that happens.
For those who stood there and heard our Lord's words,
as we talked about yesterday in Peter's rejection of the cross,
all of this sounded absurd.
And our Lord repeated things like this over and over again
during the three years that he preached.
And even though he repeated it and insisted on it
and used imperative terms,
you know, as when he said in the reverse,
unless you pick up your cross and carry it,
you cannot be my disciple.
Good Friday was a disaster.
Most of our Lord's friends and those who loved him were not there.
Our Blessed Mother was there.
St. John was there.
Mary Magdalene, a few of the women.
But our Lord's closest disciples,
aside from those few, were not there,
including Peter, who our Lord,
called Satan because he wouldn't accept the cross.
And yet our Lord was patient with Peter.
He is patient with us all.
But that is the lesson that each and every one of us have to learn
over and over and over again
to somehow find God's providence and his wisdom in the cross
and to carry it, carry our cross out of love,
knowing that God is with us.
That there is grace there and benediction and healing.
It is the mystery and the grace that motivated the saints.
St. Maximilian went into the death camp
because he understood the doctrine of Jesus
and was not ashamed of our Lord's doctrine or of his cross.
And it was what led Mother Teresa to take care of the poorest,
the children of the poor and to live as the poorest of the poor
and never become discouraged or saddened
by the circumstances in which she lived,
but always found God's presence
and the joy to lift others out of their misery.
It is what led Padre Pio to accept the cross
of the stigmatization for 50 years.
And instead of moping about his own problems,
turning his charity towards the sick and the suffering
and the spiritually infirm all around him.
His whole life was about his ministry for the conversion and sanctification of souls
and for the relief of other people's suffering, but not of his own.
So somehow we have to ask our Lord, beg our Lord and our Blessed Mother, the Co-Redemptrix,
that we might have the grace to pick up our cross and carry it with joy,
to embrace it out of love, not for its own sake, but out of love for our Lord.
We need to do it through prayer and through a clinging to our Lord in the sacraments,
especially the sacrament of penance and the sacrament of the Eucharist,
the sacrament of our Lord's sacrifice and of his love.
Our Lord is our victim on the altar.
He is also our food, our nourishment, our hope and our joy.
Amen.