Take up the Cross

Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of the best-selling books WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE and HOW GOOD DO WE HAVE TO BE, tells a story about a woman in his congregation who came to see him. She is a single mother, divorced and working to support three young children. She says to me, “Since my husband walked out on us, every month is a struggle to pay our bills. I have to tell my kids we have no money to go to the movies, while he’s out living it up with his new wife in another state. How can you tell me to forgive him?” I answer her, “I’m not asking you to forgive him because what he did was acceptable. It wasn’t; it was mean and selfish. I’m asking you to forgive because he doesn’t deserve the power to live in your head and turn you into a bitter, angry woman. I’d like to see him out of your life emotionally as completely as he is out of it physically, but you keep holding on to him. You’re not hurting him by holding on to that resentment, but you are hurting yourself!”
Christ urges us in this weekend’s Gospel to let go of those things that overwhelm our lives with sadness, despair and hopelessness, and embrace instead the Gospel values of justice, reconciliation, compassion and forgiveness. If we are true to Jesus’ call to discipleship, we must center our lives in values that run counter to what society honors, such as taking the first lonely and difficult steps toward reconciliation and peace, and putting aside our own needs and wants for what is best for family and community. Christ invites us to take up the Cross, not out of a sense of self-loathing or pessimism, but in order to transform our lives in the joy and hope of the Easter promise!