Learn to Lay Down Your Life Tuesday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Luke 9:51-56 Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, I really want to learn to love. As I break away from my activities in order to spend time with you, teach me to follow in your footsteps. Petition: Lord, please grant me the grace to show others sacrificial self-giving for your sake. 1. Determination. Jesus resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem. In other words, he was dead set on laying down his life for each of us in his passion crucifixion, and death, and then rising for us in the Resurrection. So great was his love for us that nothing would deter him. How great is my love? Am I determined to offer myself to God and others through acts of kindness and patient humility, seeking the good of others above my own good? 2. Embrace the Cross. Jesus shows us what this determination implies. They would not welcome him because his destination was Jerusalem. On a literal level, they did not accept him since they were Samaritans and he was a Jew. It was a religious squabble. However, we could also say that Jerusalem represents the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, and not everyone wants to go there. The Catholic faith teaches us to embrace the cross. True charity and faithfulness is costly, and our fallen nature tends to shy away from sacrifice. 3. Denying My Pride. Rather than embrace the cross with humility, our passions of pride can flare up and force others to follow our way of thinking. This is the temptation that St. John falls into when he asks Jesus for the green light to call down fire upon those Samaritans. This is not Christs way, and Jesus rebukes his disciples for thinking like this. Rather, the Lord teaches the way of the cross; humble patience and charity will win souls over to his cause. Dialogue with Christ: Lord Jesus, thank you for teaching me through the Gospel. Every page is filled with light. Your word is like a double-edged sword that pierces to the heart. Help me to hear your word and conform my life to it! Resolution: Lord, today I promise to live sacrificial charity by holding my tongue when I am tempted to criticize. Instead, I will try to speak well of someone today. |