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What does Jesus mean when he talks about taking up our cross?

Our parents and grandparents used to say to us, “Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. You have to work at it.” Anything of substance and value requires patience, effort, and careful planning. If it were easy to do, there would not be much value in it. Maybe it took years to learn, but there comes a point where experience teaches what our stubbornness refused. Easy come, easy go!
Jesus says the same thing about faith. Our journey of faith begins in baptism. When we are faithful to it, we find God’s plan for us, his way of allowing us to participate in his saving work, which in turn becomes for us our own salvation. Stated simply, we share in the mission of Jesus each day. We live our life with all of its ups, downs, joys and sorrows in union with the mission of Jesus. Our work then is holy. It is joined to the cross, God’s will for Jesus, the way in which he destroys sin and death and makes eternal life possible. His sacrifice accomplishes what we ourselves cannot do.
To take up the cross, then, means that we share in the mission of Jesus and so embrace the sufferings of the cross. It is our daily life made holy, given a redemptive mission. It is our purpose and goal to unite our life to that of Christ. St. Paul says it best, “If we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection” (Rom 6:5).

©2009 Liturgical Publications Inc

 Used with permission

Lectionary Year A focuses on the Gospel of Matthew. What are the Gospel’s key concerns and messages?

The community that produced Matthew’s Gospel faced a myriad of issues. The Gospel, probably written around 85 AD, addresses a community consisting primarily of Christian Jews who accepted Jesus as their Messiah. This places them in conflict with the majority of Jews in their locale who did not accept Jesus as Messiah. This creates a significant amount of tension. The Matthean community addresses this tension by seeking to clarify its identity. They are still Jews. Yet fellow Jews seem to reject them because of their acceptance of Jesus.

How are these Christian Jews to live in light of this conflict? Matthew asserts that their belief in Jesus as the Messiah is correct and had been predicted clearly in the Jewish Scriptures. Those Jews who choose not to see or believe are mistaken. Matthew eventually refers to them as false Jews because of their failure to see, understand and interpret Scripture correctly.

Matthew consistently affirms for his community the reality that they are to follow Jesus, who is the new Moses, the new lawgiver, who has challenged them to break boundaries and reach out to the Gentiles. Jesus’ mission and message is not only for Jews but for all people. Their future is with any and all who accept Jesus as Messiah. This is their path, and Jesus has promised to be with them until the end of time. How do you continue Jesus’ call to break boundaries that separate God’s people?

©2007 Liturgical Publications Inc, New Berlin, WI 53151

A Valentine’s Day Blessing
Love, the Bible says, is patient.
May you never lose your temper with the one you love,
but be patient as God was with his people.
Love, the Bible says, is never boastful.
May you cherish your love as a masterpiece of God,
and not as a trophy to be displayed.
Love, the Bible says, is never selfish.
May you always be generous to your love, with time,
with affection, with encouragement and assistance.
For as Christ loved the Church,
so we should love our beloved.
As Mary was devoted to her Son,
so we should be devoted to those we love.
And as God loved and sacrificed for the world,
so may we always be to those we love.
Amen.

The following letter from Ken Hackett, President of Catholic Relief Services, shares crucial information about the growing disaster in East Africa:

You are probably starting to hear about a humanitarian crisis unfolding in East Africa, mostly affecting Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. Catholic Relief Services staff in the region report dreadful conditions. This just came in from a refugee camp in Kenya:
They’ve walked for days or weeks from Somalia, and their shoes show it. Dusty and worn, the sandals of a little boy dangle in his hand as he wails in the center of the camp. Nearby, his exhausted 22-year-old mother, Momina, rocks her sobbing baby. “We had sheep, goats and cattle—over a dozen,” she says. “They all died from the drought…. Food was running out. So, we left.”
These terrible conditions have sparked an exodus of refugees—mostly women and children—pouring into Kenya and Ethiopia in search of food.
East Africa’s worst drought in more than half a century is causing extreme hunger for more than 11 million people. Severe lack of rainfall has resulted in failed crops, critical shortages in food and water, and countless numbers of livestock dying from dehydration and starvation. Further compounding the crisis are drastic increases in food prices.
All this brings to mind sobering images from the Ethiopian famine of 1984. Who can forget the pictures of emaciated, listless children on TV? The full scope of such a humanitarian catastrophe was not fully realized until after so many had died.
This time is different. This time, we know what is likely to come as the disaster unfolds. I am asking you to help CRS with a generous gift so that we can quickly increase the scope of our efforts there to feed and provide water to as many needy people as possible. Help us prevent another tragedy.
Since 1960, CRS has provided water and agricultural programs in Kenya and Ethiopia, where current drought conditions are not as dire as in Somalia. Your previous gifts are already saving lives because those programs helped us dig deep wells that have helped lessen the drought’s effects. But this drought is so widespread that our existing efforts are not enough. We need your help.
I ask you to please give now and help prevent another disaster like the 1984 Ethiopian famine. Please help our brothers and sisters in East Africa, who so desperately need our help.

For more information or to help, go to http://www.crs.org.

As I write this article, I’m enjoying a lovely North Dakota summer day. The sun is shining, the blue sky is dappled with whispy white clouds, and the gold and orange lillies are blooming outside my office window. It’s a good time to think about the simple things to do to care for this beautiful world God has provided for us.
Here are a few suggestions from the World Wildlife Fund:
 

• Put on a sweater, or take one off. Since the pendulum in N.D. seems to swing between furnace and air conditioning and rarely stops in between, this can help conserve energy.   

• Walk the walk. Drive less, enjoy bicycling, or get to know your neighborhood better by strolling through it

• Go for seconds – guilt free! How many items can be reused instead of thrown away? Padded envelopes, the plastic cell-packs from our seedlings, a plastic water bottle…

• Watch your waste. Oil, paints, ink cartridges, batteries do have special disposal procedures.

• Paper or plastic? No thanks! Bring your own bags along for shopping. Many have commented that bringing cloth bags to the grocery store has now become a habit.

• Flip the switch. As we are enjoying the longer days of summer, we still need to remember to turn off unneeded lights (and other energy-using items).

• Plant a seed, or a tree, a shrub, a tomato plant. The benefits are many and varied.
   
• Return to sender. if you receive too much mail or too many catalogs, contact the companies and have your name removed from their lists. Less clutter at home is an added bonus.

The leaders of more than fifty Christian denominations and organizations, including the presidents of Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities, and Bishop Stephen E. Blaire, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice, have signed the document printed below, calling for our political leaders to protect poor and vulnerable people, as they act to reduce the deficit.

A Circle of Protection: A Statement on Why We Need to Protect Programs for the Poor

In the face of historic deficits, the nation faces unavoidable choices about how to balance needs and resources and allocate burdens and sacrifices. These choices are economic, political — and moral.

As Christians, we believe the moral measure of the debate is how the most poor and vulnerable people fare. We look at every budget proposal from the bottom up — how it treats those Jesus called “the least of these” (Matthew 25:45). They do not have powerful lobbies, but they have the most compelling claim on our consciences and common resources. The Christian community has an obligation to help them be heard, to join with others to insist that programs that serve the most vulnerable in our nation and around the world are protected. We know from our experience serving hungry and homeless people that these programs meet basic human needs and protect the lives and dignity of the most vulnerable. We believe that God is calling us to pray, fast, give alms, and to speak out for justice.

As Christian leaders, we are committed to fiscal responsibility and shared sacrifice. We are also committed to resist budget cuts that undermine the lives, dignity, and rights of poor and vulnerable people. Therefore, we join with others to form a Circle of Protection around programs that meet the essential needs of hungry and poor people at home and abroad.
1. The nation needs to substantially reduce future deficits, but not at the expense of hungry and poor people.
2. Funding focused on reducing poverty should not be cut. It should be made as effective as possible, but not cut.
3. We urge our leaders to protect and improve poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance to promote a better, safer world.
4. National leaders must review and consider tax revenues, military spending, and entitlements in the search for ways to share sacrifice and cut deficits.
5. A fundamental task is to create jobs and spur economic growth. Decent jobs at decent wages are the best path out of poverty, and restoring growth is a powerful way to reduce deficits.
6. The budget debate has a central moral dimension. Christians are asking how we protect “the least of these.” “What would Jesus cut?” “How do we share sacrifice?” As believers, we turn to God with prayer and fasting, to ask for guidance as our nation makes decisions about our priorities as a people.
7. As believers, we turn to God with prayer and fasting, to ask for guidance as our nation makes decisions about our priorities as a people. 

  8. God continues to shower our nation and the world with blessings. As Christians, we are rooted in the love of God in Jesus Christ. Our task is to share these blessings with love and justice and with a special priority for those who are poor.

Budgets are moral documents, and how we reduce future deficits are historic and defining moral choices. As Christian leaders, we urge Congress and the administration to give moral priority to programs that protect the life and dignity of poor and vulnerable people in these difficult times, our broken economy, and our wounded world. It is the vocation and obligation of the church to speak and act on behalf of those Jesus called “the least of these.” This is our calling, and we will strive to be faithful in carrying out this mission.

To learn more about the Circle of Protection and to sign your name to it, go to the Sojourners site- http://www.sojo.org/