The entire objective of our human experience before God is to be divinized, deified, which means to be made partakers in the divine nature of God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit.
He has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. (2 Peter 1:4)
But, in order for this to happen, we must first get rid of some of our stinking thinking.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. (Matthew 16:23)
Our Lord said this to St. Peter after Peter challenged Jesus’ description of how He must go to Jerusalem and die.
Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. (Matthew 16:21)
Tradition indicates Peter was older than Jesus, and as such probably believed he had the authority to counsel Jesus in certain areas. Jesus’ harsh reaction was in response to Peter’s ‘rebuke’ of the Lord.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke Him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” (Matthew 16:22)
We are all familiar with the story of the irate father who discovers his young child has done something wrong, perhaps creating a terrible mess or breaking something of value. In his frustration, the father blurts out, “You are acting like a child.” With a look of confusion, the guilty party sheepishly responds, “But Daddy, I am a child.”
Peter did not respond this way, but we might well imagine the thought going through his head at our Lord’s criticism. “But Lord, I am a human being.”
At the time of this encounter, Peter was not spiritually mature enough to discern Jesus’ plan for man’s salvation. Peter did not understand that there would need to be suffering and sacrifice to redeem man from his fallen condition. Despite Peter’s childish view of salvation history, Jesus did not hesitate to use this teachable moment to instruct Peter and His other disciples about the requirements for becoming His follower.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)
Jesus would of course be the first to pick up His cross — literally. But His disciples were each going to bear their own crosses, as each of us will. And through such experiences, we too will be given the opportunity to elevate our spiritual maturity and come to understand what it means to follow Jesus.
This can all start to sound a little heavy at times, but we must recognize Jesus’ emphasis is not so much on the cross. Rather, He stresses our need to offer our lives, to literally lose our lives for His sake.
Jesus is not referring here to our giving over our lives to death, to martyrdom. Certainly, some souls in the history of the Church have been called to make such a sacrifice. But the vast majority of us who choose to follow Christ are being asked to make of ourselves a living sacrifice, to give over every aspect of our lives to God, and to allow Him to transform both the circumstance of our lives and ourselves into what His will desires us to be.
I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)
For those who mistakenly believe this sacrifice will add to the burdens of life, we should listen to what Jesus said would be the effect of our giving our lives over to Him.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
What Jesus is asking of us is to begin to think like God. He is inviting us to pick up the inevitable crosses that come into our lives, and then to lay down our entire lives by turning everything over to Him. It is in this way we will come to experience the lifting of our burdens, the relief of our crosses, or at least the grace to bear them. Let us pray this week for the grace to pick up our crosses and lay down our lives.
Copyright © 2024, Deacon Mark Danis
Image credit:"Rétire-toi, Satan (Get Behind Me, Satan)," James Tissot (Brooklyn Museum), Public domain, via WikiArt