As we begin this season of Lent, today’s Gospel (Luke 9:22-25) is a difficult message to hear and an even tougher one to carry out. We are told that we each need to carry our own cross and follow Jesus, and be prepared to do so every day. We are also told that we must renounce “self” in order for us to live. Now this goes against our every desire to want to advance ourselves in the eyes of others as well as to focus our attention on our own needs and wants.
But we are told that we need to deny ourselves. This does not mean to deny who I am, or who God made me, or the gifts that God has given me, or reject achieving certain goals, or having a good job, etc. But what it does mean is to deny the part of us that wants to run in the other direction from God, or being selfish or greedy, to cheat or lie, or to hurt others by the words we say or the actions we take.
Jesus is telling us that a life spent focused only on ourselves and our own self-advancement is a recipe for self-destruction. The only way to live is to live like Jesus – to offer our lives for others. And we do this through caring, compassion, forgiveness, justice and love.
This Lent, we must choose to die to our old “self”. We need to completely empty ourselves so that we can live in the new “self” – of having a deeper relationship with God and with each other. In other words, we need to die in order to experience our own resurrection.
Life and death are staring us in the face. Which one will we choose?
