Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, February 16, 2007

Scripture: Genesis 11:1-9. Psalm 33:10-15. Mark 8:34-9:1

Mark's Gospel is the starkest of the four Gospels and is clearly the Gospel
of the Cross. Jesus will summon his followers three times in these middle
chapters to take up the cross and follow him and listen to his message
proclaimed in the hills of Galilee. Mark gives us the pristine and clarion
presentation of that summons. We are to give ourselves totally to Jesus
and the Gospel; it is by losing ourselves for him and the sake of the
Gospel that we save ourselves. We are getting ready then for his journey
up to Jerusalem where he will end his life on the tree of the Cross. Luke
will differ from Mark in giving us almost nine complete chapters on that
journey up to Jerusalem while we listen to Jesus instructing us how to be
disciples and apostles of the Gospel which in Mark is Jesus himself. The
message and challenge of taking up the cross is not an empty one for
through this following of Christ we will be partakers in the Kingdom of
God. We are to continue believing in these Paschal Mysteries of Christ and
daily to take up the cross. Since Jesus tells us he will rise on the third
day after his crucifixion, we, too, will rise from the dead and join him in
the Kingdom of God. In our long tradition we know that righteous men and
women have done this and are now with the Lord. These are our saints and
by reading their lives or autobiographies we come to see how they took up
the cross and followed Jesus. From time to time we ought to pick up a life
of a saint and read it. In the saints we often see persons like ourselves
who lived ordinary lives but did so motivated by the carrying of the cross.
They listened to Jesus's words and pondered them over then lived them out
in witness and proclamation. St. Mark, of course, is our model for this
summons and he lived out the message of Jesus and wrote about it for us.
So, when we look at today's paradox about losing our lives in order to save
them, we enter into the Gospel and its challenge. Joy and freedom result
in the lives of the saints who have done this; so, why not in our lives?
Let us pray, " Lord, help us to follow the example of your Son's patience
and endurance. Show us the path we must follow and let your Spirit guide
us to our true home. Amen."