I believe that we can all say that in life, we have learned more from experiences that offer a challenge than from when things were easy. Someone once said: "Better a hard experience that makes you humble than success that makes you arrogant."
In today's first reading, we heard, "The Lord God opened my ear, and I did not turn back... I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me; therefore, I am not disgraced..." God calls the prophet to deliver His word to the people, but the people did not receive it well. He does not lose heart because his trust is in God and not in himself. How much peace is enjoyed by those who do the will of God in their lives and place their trust in the Lord! Many times, we think everything depends on us, and therefore, we go through a lot of 'stress' either because we are focused on pleasing people or on appearing impressive while doing our will. We find true peace of heart only if we do God's will in our lives, working as if everything depends on us, but trusting in God as if everything depends on Him.
Today's Psalm is the prayer of a person seeking to do the Lord's will in their life: "I love the Lord...; because He heard me on the day I called Him... I found myself in sorrow and distress. But I called upon the name of the Lord: ‘Lord, I beg you, save me!’ The person who trusts in the Lord still passes through the hardships of life, but because he knows that God is with him, he does not lose heart.
In today's Gospel, Jesus challenges the Apostles and us: “But who do you say that I am?” It is easy to say what others say about Jesus, but it is much harder to recognise who Jesus truly is for you: often, we are quick to respond that Jesus is our God, but when we look deep within our hearts, do we find that Jesus truly holds the first place in our lives?... Peter truly had Jesus in the first place in his heart, but only as he imagined Him to be, as he wanted Him to be. In fact, when Jesus began to speak about having to suffer and be rejected by the leaders and be killed, Peter began to rebuke Him or tried to convince Him to abandon the Cross. Jesus rebukes him with love, to help him and us understand that there is no path to life without a cross. Jesus accepts the cross because He wanted to save us; suffering is a part of our lives; our choice is not between the cross or enjoyment, but whether we choose the path of Jesus, embracing the cross with Him, or the path of the world, where we try to escape it by distracting ourselves.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” How much wisdom from heaven is in these Words, how beneficial they are if we seek to understand and live them! The one who tries to flee from the cross eventually realises that they cannot escape it forever and ends up more burdened by it if they do not accept Jesus: on the other hand, the one who accepts to carry their cross with Jesus realises that the cross is the power of God, which is used most effectively to shower down grace on themselves and many others through it. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it.” Let us ask ourselves: What is my cross or that part of my life I would throw far away if I could? How much am I seeking Jesus and His Word to enlighten even this part of my life? Am I willing to accept to carry my cross with Him because I believe that through the cross, God pours out upon me and many others through me, a shower of graces from heaven?
We ask you, Lord, to grant us the courage to accept and carry our cross with you because we are convinced that only you can make our cross a source of blessing and grace. Help us, Lord, to understand that discouragement is always a temptation we must fight, and increase in us the trust in You, who never leave us alone, especially in moments when we feel the weight of the cross. Ammen.
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