Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross. Our Venerable Father Eumenes, Bishop of Gortyna
Galatians 2:16-20; Mark 8:34-9:1
Read Galatians 2:16-20
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
It has become a joke in our household that, when looking in our refrigerator, I can sometimes not see something that is staring me right in the face. The apostles had an even more serious problem than that. Our Lord told them that, “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things…, and be killed, and on the third day be raised,” but was rebuked with, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” It is in that context that Jesus told them, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” When the apostles heard that, prior to Jesus’ words being fulfilled, they missed what was staring them right in the face.
Reading today’s reading, we have the benefit of the fulfillment of not only Christ’s passion but His resurrection. When we read, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” we know now that we serve a risen Lord but, like the apostles, we may still resist accepting that our baptism is being united with Christ in His crucifixion and that the life we now live united with His resurrection is not our own. But, as our Lord told His apostles, that is the only way we will find our life; to resist that is to lose it. Let us prayerfully reflect today on what might be staring us right in the face – let us not miss it.