
A disciple gets his/her inspiration from his/her Teacher. As disciples we should be getting our inspiration from or Teacher and Master Jesus Christ, and He will show us his cross. The reason is put nicely by Pope Francis: “When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord.”
When we’re walking the life’s journey we should be walking always in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord and we try to live this journey with the same blamelessness that God asks from Abraham: “Walk in my presence and be blameless.” (Gen 17:1) If we decide to stop in our journey of faith, them there is something wrong about us.
Along this journey of faith we are to build God’s house, the Church. As disciples of Christ we are called to be “living stones”, stones that are anointed by the Holy Spirit. We were all anointed by the same Holy Spirit in our Baptism and then in our Confirmation. As stones we cannot stay lying around as if we’re without any purpose, but we are to be the stones that build the Church, the Bride of Christ. Now since every construction made of stone has its cornerstone, our cornerstone has to be Christ and only Christ. Without him we collapse.
Why are we journeying in faith and building Christ’s Bride, the Church? Is it for our gain or glory? The disciples of Christ know that before their Master ascended into heaven he gave them a mission: “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the fulfillment of the Father's promise about which I have spoken to you: John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit within a few days… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1: 4,5,8) Our journeying in faith and our building the church should lead us to our witnessing for Jesus. Unless, with our lives, we confess that Jesus is our Lord and only Saviour, we are wasting our time.
If I do not keep walking in faith, I stall, I will shut down. If I do not build on the solid rock that is Jesus, I will only be building sand castles and everything will be swept away. If I will not profess Jesus Christ, I will be professing to worldliness of the devil.
Our profession of Jesus has to include in it the Cross of Christ. Also Saint Peter professed Christ as the Son of the living God, but when Christ spoke about his sufferings, Peter didn’t like it and Jesus reproached him sternly. Practically Saint Peter was saying to Jesus: “You know, Lord, I am ready to follow you on another way, on a one which does not include the Cross.”
How can we be disciples of Christ and at the same time eliminate the Cross of Christ? Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians: “The Jews ask for miracles and the Greeks for a higher knowledge, while we proclaim a crucified Messiah. For the Jews, what a great scandal! And for the Greeks, what nonsense! But he is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God for those called by God among both Jews and Greeks.”(1Cor 1:22-24)
Pope Francis ended his homily with these words: “I would like that all of us, after these days of grace, might have the courage - the courage - to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord: to build the Church on the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to profess the one glory, Christ Crucified. In this way, the Church will go forward.”