HOMILY 3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B

 

Deacon Jerry Franzen        April 14, 2024             Cathedral

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19             1 John 2:1-5a              Luke 24:35-48

 

Praised Be Jesus Christ!  Good Morning

At our Baptism, we received the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit:

knowledge, understanding, wisdom, counsel, fortitude,

 fear of the Lord.

These gifts were then strengthened with the further infusion

of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation.

They are to help us to improve our relationship with God.

Knowledge, understanding and wisdom, are the first three.

They are different and yet connected.

Consider the recent eclipse.

People knew the date, time and locations to view the eclipse

and not to view the eclipse with the naked eye.

They had that knowledge.

Many people had the understanding that looking directly at the sun 

could focus the power of sunlight directly on the retina of your eyes

and damage your eyes.

Many people had gained the wisdom to use the approved glasses

to be able to directly watch the progress of the eclipse safely.

Knowledge is what we grasp from reality and store in our intellect

to be used as needed.

Understanding involves why things are the way they are.

And wisdom uses knowledge and understanding to make correct decisions.

In the spiritual world, these words have similar meanings in our

 relationship with God.

The gift of knowledge prompts us to learn more facts about God.

The gift of understanding prompts us to learn more about why God is 

the way He is and why He does what He does.

And the gift of wisdom prompts us to make the right decisions based on

what we know and understand about God.

Knowledge, understanding and wisdom in the spiritual realm must be

grounded in our faith in God.

I

In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter said:

“Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance,

just as your leaders did.”

The implication is that IF the Jewish people had known that Jesus

 was the Messiah, He would not have been put to death.

In the second reading, John wrote,

”The way that we may be sure that we know him (Jesus ) is to keep

his commandments.”

In the spiritual realm, the measure of the degree to which

we really know Jesus lies in what we do.

So we might ask to what degree do WE make the wise decision

to follow Jesus by keeping the commandments

and following the Church’s teachings.

 

We should know a lot about Jesus.

We hear Jesus every Sunday; we have no excuse for ignorance,

no excuse  for not knowing or not understanding

that Jesus is our Messiah, our King, our Savior.

AND we should always be striving to know Him more fully.

But the real test of knowing Jesus is not what is in our minds;

not in our knowledge or understanding; it is in what we do,

in what decisions we make.

We should know and understand the commandments of God

and the truths of the Catholic faith.

Knowing and understanding should be the basis

for what we decide to do.

                                                            II

 In the spiritual world, the world of faith, the gift of knowledge helps us

to see our lives in the way God sees them, but in a limited way.

The gift of understanding helps us to ascertain God’s reasons

for placing us in our particular circumstances.

So how do we go about increasing our knowledge and understanding

of Jesus so we can make the right decisions?

Jesus, in today’s Gospel reading, gives us two paths:

1.“He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

We can better know Jesus through reading, studying and

contemplating the Scriptures.

 

2. He “was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

We can better know Jesus through what we do here today.

 First, we get to know Jesus better at the table of His Word.

The “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,”  a document of the Second

Vatican Council, has a startling sentence:

“God is present in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks

when the Holy Scriptures are read in church.”

We are so accustomed to the real presence of Jesus under the forms

of bread and wine at Mass, that we may hesitate to speak of the real

 presence of Jesus in the proclaimed Word.

 

When the lector proclaims God’s Word in the first two readings and

the priest or I, proclaim the Gospel, God is speaking. 

The words are of John or Paul or Luke, but they are inspired by God.

Through these words God speaks to us.

The question is “How do these words affect our actions?”

“What is our response?”

We heard today a selection from Acts,  NOT to learn that some people,

who did not know Jesus, had crucified Him.

 But maybe God wanted us to hear about their ignorance so

WE would be challenged to consider our own ignorance of Jesus.

Maybe it was a broader challenge to our love for Jesus and our readiness

 to follow Him.

 I say, “Maybe” because I should not be telling you what you heard.

I don’t know what you heard; but I do know that God

was speaking to you.

To hear the Lord, you cannot be passive and listen like one might listen

 to a baseball game on the radio or a book on disk.

You must listen with your heart, a heart that prompts a response.

That is how people listened to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,

 how young people of the past once listened to the peaceful protest songs

of Joan Baez, as people now listen to the homilies of Pope Francis,

listening as a heart speaking to a heart.

 

Secondly, we are also brought into a deeper relationship with Jesus

at the Lord’s table.

We offer Jesus to the Father as the sacrifice for our salvation.

When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we are united

in the Body of Christ with Jesus as the Head.

We are challenged to take our part in the Body of Christ.

Both the Word and the Eucharist should help us to know Jesus better,

help us to see our lives as God sees them and to ascertain why God

has placed us where we are in His plan.

That should show us the way to do what we are to do.

                                                         III

What we experience at Mass and what we read in Scripture

are just first steps; these must be translated into action.

The Israelite knew with the heart.

To know God was to experience God, to recognize Him in his words

AND his deeds –

from the parting of the Red Sea,  to  simply “Samuel, Samuel.”

from the covenant on Sinai  to the “still quiet voice” speaking to Elijah

(1 Kgs 19:12).

Each of these experiences prompted a response:

Praise for parting the sea, “Your servant is listening.” by Samuel

Obeying the commandments of Sinai and Elijah went to the cave

for more instructions.

         

To really know God is to experience God and to respond.

It’s not just listening but also responding in justice and charity.

It’s following God in faith and in action, opening our hearts

to further submissiveness, yearning for what is beyond.

To know God, then, is not a question of clearer vision or more words;

it means responding by delving deeper into how to follow Our Lord.

                  

*Based loosely on a homily by Walter J. Burghardt, S.J. in “Still Proclaiming Your Wonders” Paulist Press New York 1984 pp 84-89

 

 

HOMILY – 4th SUNDAY IN LENT – YEAR B

 

By Deacon Jerry Franzen    Cathedral        3/10/24

2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23   Ephesians 2:4-10     John 3: 14-21

Praised Be Jesus Christ.  Good Morning!

When I have asked engaged couples in Marriage Preparation,

if they love each other, they say that they do with an attitude of “Well, isn’t that a given?”

When I ask them what love means to them, they have trouble verbalizing just what love is.

The various ways we use the term “love” may lead to a confused idea of what love is.

I love raspberry chocolate chip ice cream.

I love being part of the Serra Club for vocations.

I love my therapist who helps me to be calm and focused.

I love my wife.  Do you see what I mean?

 

*One night a man decided to show his wife how much he loved her.

After dinner he recited romantic poetry, telling her he would climb high mountains,

swim wide oceans, cross deserts in the burning heat of the day, and even sit at her window

and sing love songs to her in the moonlight, all just to be near her.

After listening to him try to describe his immense love for her,

she ended the conversation when she asked, “But will you take out the trash for me?”

LOVE is is a theme throughout the three readings of today.

 I

 In the first reading, we heard about how God loved

 his sinful people so much that he sent prophets to them

 early and often, in an attempt to change them.

Eventually God became angry and let the Israelites’enemies

 burn the temple and take the survivors away as slaves.

After a long captivity, the Lord, who LOVED them so, inspired the pagan King Cyrus

to release the Israelites and to support the rebuilding of the temple.

 

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul praised God because of His love

for him, Paul, and for his brothers and sisters in Ephesus.

It was this LOVE that raised them from the death of sin to life in Christ.

Paul says that grace, the result of God’s LOVE,

is the means by which we can be seated with Him in heaven.

My definition of grace is: the freely – given gift from God that,

with our cooperation, can help us to become more like HIM.

 

AND the selection from the third chapter of John’s Gospel includes this famous verse 16:

“For God so LOVEd the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone

who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”    

That verse has been described as the entire Bible in one sentence.     

Actually one can pick pretty much any reading from any Mass and relate it to God’s love for us.

II

 So, let’s look a bit deeper into the word “LOVE” and how God loves us.

**The earliest known written version of the New Testament

          was written in Greek, not English.

Ancient Greek had at least four different words

          for which the English translation is the word "love."

Each word expresses a different facet of the word “love.”

 

***1. Possibly the most basic word for love in Greek is "storge" [STORE-gay].

C.S Lewis describes it as “affection.”  A hobby might be a good example.

“I just love growing house plants.”  “I love to go fishing.”

 

2. The second Greek word for love is "philia" [FEEL-ee-yuh].

It describes a bond formed when two people share a common interest or ideal

– a friendship.

It is a bond based on a conscious decision to share one's interests with another person.

Someone might love the experience of a Prayer Group.

This word is used by Jesus at the Last Supper:

"I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know    

the master's business; I call you friends…..”

Now that they had learned much from Him, they shared in His life.

We are to be friends of Jesus, to have a personal relationship with Him.

 

3. The third Greek word for love is "eros" [AIR-ohss].

This is an attraction that leads to the kind of passionate feeling

that carries us away and fills us with intense emotions.

Two people become romantically involved and that carries over

to the physical love of husband and wife.

Jesus certainly loves us passionately.

He sweated blood in the garden of Gethsemane over His love for us.

 

4. The fourth Greek word for love "agape" [ah-GAH-pay],

is used far more frequently in the Bible, than the other three.

This is the love that focuses on doing good for others, serving them no matter

how I feel about them or what I might get in return.

This is self-giving love, the essential love of Jesus, not because doing so 

filled him with ecstasy, but because He wanted to save us.

He wanted to restore hope to our sinful hearts

and lead us back from our sinful exile into His Father's house.

 “Agape” is the word used in today's Gospel: ”God so loved the……”

It is also the word used when Jesus gives his New Commandment at the Last Supper:

"Love one another as I have loved you.”

When St. John in his First Letter writes, "God is love," “agape” is the word used.

God is completely focused on our good, happiness and fulfillment.

That's why he created us: not for his happiness, but for ours.

That's why he forgives us as often as we need to be forgiven.

That's why he feeds us with the Body and Blood of His Son.

That's why he carries our crosses with us, never leaving us to suffer alone.

And since we were created in God's image, we will find the fulfillment

that we yearn for as we gradually learn to love in this same Christ-like way.

This is the type of love that is essential in a married couple.

God’s love for us is all of these aspects of love;

it is affectionate, friendly, passionate and sacrificial.

And our love for Him and others must be the same.  

                                                         II

On Feb. 21, 2018, one of the great preachers of our day, possibly the greatest,

was invited by God to sit next to Him.

I certainly hope that Rev. Billy Graham is now with Jesus

who loved him so much that he gave His life for him.

When Rev. Graham’s body lay in state in the Capitol rotunda, President Trump

said that in essence Rev. Gram’s sermons could all be summarized as “God loves you!”

Bishop Foys, near the end of his homily at Confirmation,

often  said to those who were to be confirmed,

“If you remember only one thing from what I have said, remember that God loves you.”

That love for each of us is affectionate; we are His adopted children

That love is friendly; He sent His Son to live among us

That love is passionate; throughout all of salvation history He has persistently

provided His children with a path to salvation.

Certainly God’s love has been sacrificial; He gave us His Son who suffered, died

and rose from the dead  for our salvation.

 

In the three previous weeks of our Lenten penance, we have been,

first,  reminded of our need to seek the solace of the desert to consider our sinfulnesss,

second, reminded of how God wanted to wipe out sin  with a great flood, 

and then, last Sunday, reminded us of the ways of our sin in the Ten Commandments.

That all may have seemed like a lot of bad news; in a way, it is.              

Today we are reminded that it is precisely because of those sins and our selfishness

that Christ came to earth to save us.

And that is certainly the Good News.

This Sunday is called "Laetare Sunday," the Lent Sunday of Rejoicing.

(That's the reason we wear festive rose-colored vestments today.)

Today as Jesus renews his unconditional love for us in this holy Mass,

and especially as we receive him in Holy Communion, we must be “Eucharist”

and thank him for His love.

May we cooperate with God’s grace not only to experience his love, but to share

that “agape” with others, especially those who are still living in darkness.

This week, may our active, Christ-like love be like a sunrise in the hearts of others,

giving them hope and drawing them towards   the saving fountain God's grace.

 

*Story taken from “1001 More Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking” by Michael Hodgin #789, p 277 Zondervan Pub. House,Grand Rapids MI 1998

 

***The division used in this homily is drawn from C.S. Lewis's "The Four Loves" and the first part of Pope Benedict's Encyclical Letter, "Deus caritas est."

 

HOMILY FOR 6TH SUNDAY Ordinary Time -YEAR B

 

Deacon Jerry Franzen    CATHEDRAL – FEBRUARY 11, 2024

Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46       1 Corinthians 10:31-11,1    Mark 1:40-45

 

Praised Be Jesus  Christ.  Good Morning.

In recent weeks  in the Gospel we have heard of healings by Jesus:

Last week it was curing the sick including St Peter’s mother-in-law

and driving out demons.

The week before it was, also, driving out demons,

and today its the curing of a leper.

Three Gospel selections out of four from St. Mark’s Gospel on 

miraculous signs and we haven’t even left the first chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel.

The second Chapter begins with the healing of a paralytic.

It seems that from the outset St. Mark wanted the community

that he wrote for to know that

1. Jesus was the Son of God because He could do amazing things,

2. and that He took on human form to cure people.

In the first reading, the thirteenth chapter of Leviticus speaks to how one

 type of ill person seeking a healing should behave.

A suspected leper had to travel to the Temple to meet with a priest

who had the final say on whether he truly had leprosy.

If the priest judged that the person truly had leprosy, the leper had to

 indicate his repentance by wearing shabby torn clothes, shaving his head

 and covering his beard.

He had to live away from the community, maybe partly because the

people thought his condition might be contagious,

but mostly because he was considered to be unclean.

He had to declare that he was unclean

to ward off any that approached him.  

I

Why was a priest involved?

In the Jewish community, in order for a person to be a member of the

worshipping community, that person must be clean and pure.

The belief was that the body must be whole, not diseased,

in order to fully worship God.

There were various circumstances which would make one unclean.

The priest made the judgment of whether the person was

“clean” and welcomed as part of the worshipping community

or “unclean” and have to live apart.

Leprosy, as we know it, probably did not exist in the Mediterranean

region in the time of Jesus.

It is thought to have originated on the Indian subcontinent

at about 1200 AD.

The word “leprosy” is of Greek origin and in that language meant a skin

condition that produces the scab, pustule or blotch described in the first

reading.

So the condition that this “leper” had is probably not leprosy as we know it.

But I want to focus on the use the word “unclean.”

Most think that this was the way the leper warned people to stay away

 because this condition called leprosy was contagious.

That is true; leperosy as we know it is contagious,

but that requires repeated contact over a period of time.

However, recall the parable of the Good Samaritan.

A man was accosted by robbers who left him for dead.

Both a priest and a levite passed that man by,

but the Samaritan ministered to his needs.

The actions of the priest and levite are explained as their concern that,

if they touched the injured man, who might have even been dead,

they would be declared “unclean” and could not worship with the community.

According to Mosaic Law, touching a corpse made the person “unclean.”

If an “unclean” person was cured, then he would have go to a priest

to be declared to be unclean,  do whatever the Law described for the

person’s purification  and then be declared as “purified” by the priest.

So people had to avoid the lepers, not so much because the condition was

contagious, but because the disease was thought to be bringing about the

death of the leper.

Contact with a person whose death was imminent

was apparently as bad a contact with a corpse.

  II

 With His cure Jesus made it such that the man could return

  to his normal relationships with his community, his family and with his God.

He was no longer forced to be an outcast.

Furthermore, it is important to recognize that Jesus touched him.

The very act of one human comforting another in touching

is supremely important in the ministry of Jesus.

It illustrates splendidly why God took on our flesh, walked the earth and

died our death to be able to touch humankind, to restore our proper

relationship with God and with others.

I see the “leper” in the Gospel as a metaphor for us as sinners.

When we sin, we weaken our relationship with God.

Serious sin removes us far from God.

Sin also puts up a barrier in our relationship with others.

When we are in the state of serious, that is mortal, sin, we are separated

from the worshipping community, because we cannot receive the

 Eucharist with the others.

This healing, like so many others that Jesus did, went beyond the

 physical to heal the relationships of the leper with God and with his

 community.  

Jesus can still touch us.

There are a considerable number of accounts in scripture

 where Jesus touched a person and the person was healed.

Last Sunday, we heard how Jesus touched Peter’s mother-in-law –

 took her hand, and she was cured of her fever.

God has given us the sacraments as the means by which Jesus can

 continue to touch us.    

The sacrament of Penance, in which the priest stands in for Jesus,

is the means by which we can feel the cleansing touch of Jesus.

It is a means by which we can go back to zero and be truly “cleansed”

from our sin, to be once again declared “clean” of all sin.

 III

 Today’s Gospel reading is not just a lesson about what God has done for us;

 it can also be a lesson on what we can do for others.

If we do an about face and move from being in the role of the leper

to being a disciple of Jesus, we should be asking the question,

“Who do I consider to be “unclean” and "how can I touch them to help

 to make them “clean?”

Who are the outcasts of today? –

 the homeless, the immigrants, the poor, the imprisoned, the addicts,

the unwed mothers, the criminals who have served their sentences.

They are ostracized, considered to be “unclean” for one reason or another.

We might tell our children, our friends and ourselves to stay away from some of them.

BUT, might you hear some of them saying to you, as the leper did to Jesus,

“If you want to, you can cure me.”

“If you want to, you can help me.”

As a follower of Jesus, what is our response?

Is it “I will do it” as was Jesus’ response or at least “I will help.”

or is it more like “Go away, I can’t do that?”

Do we turn a deaf ear to these cries for help?  

There is much that we can do to help build in them

a relationship to God and His community.

There are soup kitchens, food pantries and homeless shelters to support

with contributions and volunteer activities.

There are programs to help immigrants to be acclimated

to our environment.

There are agencies like the St. Vincent de Paul Society,

Rose Garden Mission, Mary Rose Mission, Care Net and the New Hope

 Center, Welcome House, and Be Concerned.

We have Catholic Charities in all of its various ministries.

All of these serve the poor and marginalized in a variety of ways.

They can always use contributions both material and monetary

AND volunteer help.

Efforts in jail ministry can have a big effect on the imprisoned.

The same is true for programs aimed at relieving persons from the

 scourge of addiction.

People in these programs need help to restore their right relationships

with their families, their friends,  their community and their God.

Lent, which is fast upon us,  is an ideal time to

*“Listen to what God might be saying to you

–  (this is) the God who took our flesh and blood, our mind and heart,

to begin making all relationships right.”

 

* Taken from “Bring the Homeless Poor into Your House?” in “To Be Just is to Love - Homilies for a Church Renewing” by Walter J. Burghartd, Paulist Press New York NY 2001 p103

HOMILY 2ND SUNDAY Ordinary Time -YEAR B Jerry Franzen Cathedral– JANUARY 12, 2024

 

1 Samuel 3:3b-10,19     1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20       John 1:35-42

 Two questions: “What are you looking for?”

 And “Rabbi, where are you staying?”

 And one invitation: “Come, and you will see.”

 and according to St. John’s Gospel, two followers of John the Baptist,

 Andrew and possibly John the Evangelist became the first disciples of Jesus.

  I

Let’s look further into these two questions and one invitation.

1. Jesus asked the two, “What are you looking for?”

John the Baptist had said, referring to Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God.”

He was saying,  “This is the one, the Savior, the Messiah.”

John the Baptist was telling his disciples to follow along after Jesus,

and two of his disciples were following Him.

Jesus noticed them, but he didn’t ask, “Why are you following me?”

 or “What are you looking at?”

He asked them, “WHAT are you looking FOR?”

Certainly Jesus knew what they were about,

 but He wanted to hear their answers.

What were they looking for?

I think that they were looking for something to hold on to.

I think that they were following Jesus, because they were looking for 

hope and the Messiah was their hope.

The Baptist had identified Jesus as the fulfillment of their hope.

Notice that they did not answer Jesus’ question,

maybe they were afraid to express their hope for fear of rejection.

A typical way to avoid answering a question is to reply with a question.

They asked Him,“Rabbi, where are you staying?”

While there is a variety of ways people have interpreted that question,

 I prefer to think that they just wanted to know

 where they had to go in order to be with Jesus,

 to be His students, to learn whether he was really the fulfillment of their

 hope.

They didn’t ask about His teachings;

they were ready to sample whatever He taught.

There was hope that He was the Savior, the Messiah.

They may have thought that where Jesus stayed and His lifestyle

would indicate what it might be like to be His students.

 

In southwestern Louisiana, among the Cajun people,

a person might come up to you and say, “Where ya at?”

A person unfamiliar with the Cajun culture might think,

“Well I’m right here in front of you.”

But when the Cajun asks, “Where ya at?,”

the local response is, “Fine, and hower you.”

“Where ya at?” is another way of asking

“How are things going?” which is not far from

“Where are you going?” Close to “Where are you?”

When Jesus was asked where He was staying

He did not give an answer but He gave an invitation.

“Come and you will see.” An invitation to follow Him.

It’s not “Come and I will show you my house.”

It was “Join me and you will ‘see’ that your hope will be fulfilled

and you will see with the eyes of faith.”

 

So the original conversation might be reinterpreted as:

Jesus asking, “Are you searching for hope?”

The disciples respond, “Teacher, we want to know if you are the Messiah

 that will fulfill our hope and bring us faith.”

And Jesus says, “Join me in what I do and you will have faith.”

 II

 The word “disciple” means “follower.”

“Follower,”not in the sense of “playing follow the leader,”

but here “follower” means placing your faith in Jesus,

doing as Jesus would have us do, living like Jesus.

No true disciple of Jesus has ever found it to be easy.

Peter is a prime example.

When he stepped out of the boat on to the water,

his faith in Jesus was severely tested and it wavered.

When he felt threatened just prior to Jesus’ crucifixion,

he denied more than once that he even knew Jesus.

And it was only at the end of his life, after he had brought so many to 

Jesus, that he fully understood what Jesus had said:

“If you want to follow me, take up your cross.”

Peter was crucified; he really did take up his cross.

No disciple of Jesus has ever found it to be easy.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor,

is a good example of a more modern disciple.

In 1939 he was in New York, but he decided to return

to his native Germany and was there during World War II,

because he felt that his place was with his struggling fellow countrymen.

Like Peter, he felt the “cost of discipleship.”

He wrote a book with that title – “The Cost of Discipleship.”

He was imprisoned for his anti-Hitler activities

and was hanged in 1945 at the age of 39 in a Nazi concentration camp

on the charge of plotting to overthrow Hitler.

No disciple of Jesus has ever found it to be easy.

 III

 So where are we in this picture?

We have turned to Jesus like those first disciples:

 “Look over there, the Lamb of God”

We have faith; we have welcomed Jesus into our lives.

We continue to come and see what it is like to be a disciple.

And why have we turned toward Jesus?

Some would answer: “Because it is what our families did for us.

“Training in the practices of the faith.”

Some turn to Jesus, because He is a protector from harm.

Some turn to Jesus, because He is the great problem solver.

Some turn to Him either having experienced a miracle

or in the process of looking for one.

 

The genuine disciples keep turning to Jesus

because they have been called.

It begins with a sense of something missing in life.

We feel this sense of “What am I looking for?”

We investigate by asking “Where should I be staying?”

And ultimately we respond to the invitation: “Come and you will see.”

Most of us have been raised Christian, some have converted.

We know that we can find security in Jesus.

We know that Jesus has all the answers.

But none of these explains why we are ready

to face the “Cost of discipleship” for Christ.

 

The real reason why disciples of Jesus believe in him,

 abide in him, seek to bring others to him

 AND are ready to suffer for him is that Jesus called them.

And Jesus has called each of us as a disciple,

but not directly by name like Samuel.

We were called at our Baptism.

Most of us were too young to know that,

but we have since learned it.

Certainly we got that call without deserving it.

The question is: Are we living it?

By God’s grace of Bapism, we first turned to Jesus.

That turning, that converson, is not a one-shot affair;

The call to conversion is persistent, ceaseless.

 In the words from Godspell:

“Let me know you more clearly, love you more dearly,

  follow you more nearly day by day.”

It’s not that we must always be thinking of Jesus,

but that we must always be thinking like Him.

It’s not that we must be reproducing what Jesus did,

but reproducing the love which he showed for all.

It’s not that we must be crucified like Jesus with nails,

but that we must be crucified with the anguish of the crosses 

that we must bear.

No true disciple of Jesus has ever found it to be easy.

 

Without the call to discipleship,

we would be lost; there would be no hope.

By how we answer the question, “What are you looking for?”

we should learn a good deal about ourselves.

We should get a sense of how convinced and passionate we are

about our roles as disciples.

The question, “What are you looking for?”

is in contrast to the one Jesus asked Peter

after three years of his discipleship: “Do you love me?”