Sunday Gospel Warm-Up

Take Up Your Cross

Mark 9:30-37

In our Gospel this weekend, we have Jesus thinking one way and his apostles thinking the opposite. The apostles are of the mindset of moving up in this world. They bicker about who is the greatest. Jesus, on the other hand, is on the path of going down in the esteem of this world, so much so, that he dies a horrible death as a traitor to the state. It couldn’t get much lower than that.

The point is that authentic love requires humility and sacrifice on our part. When the ego recedes with all its hang-ups, real love begins. Our task, as Jesus witnessed, is to take up our loving cross with humility and, in that, we become an instrument of God.