“Blessed is the one who is gracious and lends to those in need."
Jesus gives us, in today’s Gospel, the cost of discipleship: loving God above all things, even life itself. Christ does not want us to follow him under false pretenses and he is direct with us about be his disciples: “whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
Our following of Christ cannot avoid calvary, but passes by way of our own moments of suffering or persecution. The question for us Christians is how we will embrace these moments in our lives when they come? Christ and St. Paul challenges us to embrace all that we undergo – even suffering – with Love.
St. Paul reminds us that our crosses in life can only be endured, transformed, and conquered if we, with God’s grace, embrace them with Love. Our Crosses are transformed into instruments of salvation when they are transformed by our Love through God’s grace.
Will we take the risk of following Christ then? Will we take the risk of loving God, no matter what comes? Will we take the risk of cultivating a disposition of love no matter the concrete details of our life – joy or suffering? Let us owe nothing to anyone except our Love and let us spend our love lavishly on others.