Victor Frankl spent years in a German concentration camp and in his book Man's Search for Meaning he
says to live is to suffer to survive is to find meaning in the suffering to live is to suffer to
survive is to find meaning in the suffering and Christians find the meaning of the suffering in
the cross in the crucifixion we know that on Calvary Jesus made suffering the currency of
redemption the means by which souls are won back to God and and in today's gospel Lord tells us
that accepting the cross is the core is the core or the heart of discipleship and reminds us that
you and I are disciples of a crucified God like they say if you want to follow Christ you better
look good on wood that's the expression if you want to follow Christ you better look good on
wood as Saint Teresa of Avila understood that humiliation and trials went hand in hand with
the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the
crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ are two combined
crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the
crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the
crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the
crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the
crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the
crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ one by one
Practically this is theک
Well to the end of her life Saint Theresa with sayLady sat 25oug
will say would say before over you ftr
Understand its value because the cross enables us to give expression to love
It's the only great love that can bear great crosses like st. Francis prayed for two things
Lord give me a share of your suffering Lord. Give me a share of your love
Without one we can't bear the other Lord. Give me a share of your suffering would give me a share of your love
in
today's gospel
Saint Peter is kind of on a high from last week's gospel last week
Peter was given authority over the church. He was given the keys to the kingdom
He was named Pope
But in today today's gospel he rebukes Jesus
Like, you know, there's that expression
I had a seminarian friend who used to say that
If we were God's boss, we would have fired him a long time ago
Well, that's kind of what Peter tries to do in that gospel
like Peter goes there he rebukes Jesus and
Because suffering and death were not on Peters agenda
Well, Christ's mission was to choose death as his bride
The Christian perspective is that
Sacrifice to sacrifice the self in love
is
Is the basis of Christianity?
It becomes the source of life for others again that was his agenda and as Christians we say that's our job description
That's our agenda
In Jesus's response to him was
Get thee behind me Satan
Because the great lie
Satan is the father of lies. The great lie is that the Christian life can be lived without the cross
The great lie is that God would never want to inconvenience any of us in any way
Okay, get behind me stating
Not only stop telling me what to do but get behind me and follow me
so
The real Jesus is always going to judge
Jerusalem in today's gospel
Jesus is heading toward Jerusalem
He's always going toward Jerusalem
We always meet with resistance when we follow him
If you are to be a bearer of that love you too will encounter resistance you too will encounter the cross
Sometimes like our Lord says to Peter you are not thinking as God does but as human beings do
The way human beings think
We think in terms of avoiding the suffering like like avoiding the cross
But God thinks in terms of self-sacrificing love embracing the cross
God says how will I love today?
You and I are naturally inclined towards saying how will I try to avoid the cross today?
But he says not merely to accept the cross but to take it up
But to embrace it and that's the goal
in that gospel
It's a story full machine
his
Full-smite tells the story of a young man who was one day approached by an angel
carrying three volumes of a book and
The young man saw that the book was filled with profound wisdom and so we asked the angel the cost of that book
When he heard the price he said
says the price was too high, the young man walked away sadly.
In his middle age, that same angel
appeared to the man carrying two volumes of the book.
The man asked, what is the price of those two volumes?
The price of the two volumes was the same as the price
for three volumes.
The man told the angel the price is too high,
and he walked away sadly.
And finally, in his old age, once more,
the angel appeared to him, now holding
one volume of that same book.
The old man asked, what is the price of that single volume?
The angel told him that the price of one volume
was the same as the price for two volumes, which
was the same as the price for three volumes.
The three volumes represent the three stages of life, youth,
adulthood, and old age.
And the price of the volumes represents
the cost of life.
The price of discipleship, the price of salvation.
The cost of redemption is crucifixion.
The price of resurrection is the cross.
And so it's only if we have died with him
that we can hope to share in his resurrection.
Like we say, the cross may seem inconvenient,
may seem not to fit in with our plans.
Well, they say that the only good plan is one
that can be changed.
And when we embrace the cross, we change our plans,
and we yield to God's plan.