Luke 9:22-25:
“If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it, but anyone who loses his life for my sake will save it. What gain then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?”.
How difficult we make it for ourselves to understand these words of Jesus! They are the words of the Gospel that many would like to erase. They speak of suffering, of being executed, of denying oneself, of the cross, of losing one’s life…
But they also speak to winning, of salvation, of resurrection…
Jesus is not a masochist, nor does he want us to be masochists.
Jesus brings us joy and life. And that is what this Gospel text tells us.
Following him, we will find LIFE.
Carrying our cross, we come to LIFE.
Losing our life, we find LIFE.
Jesus invites us as we begin this Lent to follow him in the dedication of his life for the salvation of others in the mission that he entrusts to each of us.
Will you dare this Lent to follow in his footsteps until his Resurrection?
Don’t doubt it: this is how you win your life because, ultimately, what you win is LIFE.
Good day.
Antonio Sanjuan Marin, cmf
