If anyone wishes to come after me

Dt 3,0,15-20; Ps 1; Lk 9,22-25
7 MARCH

The following of Jesus is very similar to death. When a man dies, his soul leaves the body and the others can do what they want with it. The corpse has no resistance. Does not express wishes. It does not manifest thoughts. It is not opposed to any decision that is taken on it. So it must be for who wants to follow the Lord. He must remove his heart from his chest and put that of Lord Jesus. He must deprive himself of his spirit and let the Holy Spirit take over. He must renounce his will and assume that of the Father. He must even be stripped of his body, to be and to live as the true, perfect and holy body of Christ. In his life the disciple must show the will of the Father and his love, the grace of Christ and the mystery of his cross, the new vitality of the Holy Spirit and every fruit that is the work of the Spirit of God in his life. The following of Jesus is a very high mission. The disciple is called to manifest all Christ even in the smallest things of his daily life. For this he will have to be a living Gospel. Who sees him must see the Word of God acting in him with great power and strength. Being the Word of God omnipotent and creative, He must manifest of it all the transforming and saving power.

Who is the Jesus whom the disciple is called to manifest alive in his body? It is the Jesus that will have to suffer a lot, be rejected by the elders, by the chief priests and by the scribes, be killed and rise again on the third day. Suffering and glory are one mystery in Jesus. But first the mystery of suffering comes and then, as its fruit, the mystery of glory. By subjecting Jesus to the mystery of suffering with the gift of his whole self to the Father, the Father will also give him the crown of glory. Supreme in suffering, highest in glory. Exalted in the passion, exalted in the resurrection. The passion of Jesus is very pure obedience to the Father. It is the fruit of the fulfilment of every work that the Father has commanded to Jesus to fulfil and of every Word that He has told him to announce and teach men. That of Jesus is not a suffering of sin committed or vice that he contracted. Instead it is a pain generated by his purest relationship of listening to the Father. He did all for the glory of the Father. The Father has done everything and everything will do for the glory of the Son. The Son glorifies the Father. The Father glorifies the Son. The Son offers his whole life to the Father. The Father gives it to him glorious, immortal, spiritual and incorruptible. The Son loves the Father without measure. The Father honours the Son without measure. The Son gives his body to the Father from the cross. The Father gives the whole universe to the Son, constituting him Lord, Redeemer, Saviour and Judge.

He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?

Whoever wants to follow Jesus, who wants to be the life of his mystery of suffering and of glory, must also deny himself. That is, he must renounce his thoughts and assume the thoughts of the Father. He has to strip himself of his will and take that of God. He has to take from his chest the heart of stone and put the heart of Christ Jesus, to be able to love as He loves and to obey as He obeys. He must let himself be moved and led by the Holy Spirit, in the same way that Jesus is led by Him. Everything in the disciple must have the scent of Christ the Lord. Perfume of obedience, love, sacrifice, service, forgiveness, oblation, holocaust and immolation. We give life to Jesus in time, He will give us eternal life in time and for eternity. Or an exchange: we give the whole man. Jesus gives us all of God. We renounce the things of the earth. He fills us with things in heaven. We work for his glory, renouncing our ephemeral and vain and foolish glory on earth and He will dress us with eternal glory. It’s a choice.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, help us to give our whole life to Christ the Lord.