What Is Our Cross?

"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34).

The cross is  the main symbol of our Christian religion. We place it on the highest point on bur church. We fashion it in neon lights to shine in the darkness. We place fancy crosses on our altars and communion tables. We even wear it as jewelry.

People speak about bearing their crosses. A loved one dies, and the ones left behind say they bear a cross of loneliness. Another person with an incurable disease calls it his cross. The mother of a wayward son or daughter speaks of them as her cross. This is not what Jesus meant when he told his followers to take up their crosses.

Jesus chose the way of the cross. It was not thrust on him without his knowledge or consent. To Jesus it was the symbol of bearing someone else's burden. It is something we do willingly. Jesus could have escaped from the cross, but then he wouldn't have been the Son of God.

Our cross is to do willingly for others something that we do not have to do. We do something for someone else out of love. We hope that if we do a good deed it will inspire another to do a good deed also. Our cross is to carry someone else's burden.

Only Jesus could turn an instrument of torture into a symbol of love and service. So, whenever we see a cross we must not think of it as an instrument of pain, but a tool to build for others.

Awaken within me, O God, the true meaning of the cross. May the sight of it remind me of my obligation to do for others what they cannot do for themselves.