“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23).

Don’t think that just because you are in the world, you can take to it like a fish to water.

Don’t think that simply because the world comes into your home through certain radio and TV shows, you are entitled to listen to every broadcast and watch every program.

Don’t think that just because you walk through the streets of the world you can look at all the ads and billboards without coming to any harm, and buy just any publications from the newsstand or the bookstore.

Don’t think that just because you are in the world you can live as you please, the way the world does, and follow the world’s example of immorality: abortion, divorce, hatred, violence, theft…

No! No! You are in the world; no one can deny that. But you are not of the world.

This fact makes a great difference. It places you among those who don’t do what the world tells you to, but rather follow what the voice of God suggests to you from within. God lives in the heart of every human being. If you listen to him, he will introduce you to a kingdom which is not of this world, a society where true love, justice, purity, meekness and evangelical poverty are lived, where self-control is the norm.

In recent years many young people have journeyed to India and the Far East, hoping to find some peace of mind and discover the secrets of the Eastern spiritual masters, who, after a long process of selfmortification, frequently radiate a more genuine kind of love that touches everyone who meets them.

These young people’s quest is a very natural reaction to the uproar in the world, to the noise around us and within us which leaves no room for silence in which to hear God’s voice.

But is it really necessary to go to India, when for two thousand years Christ has been saying to us: “Renounce yourself… renounce yourself.”

A Christian cannot expect to lead a comfortable and easy life. Christ did not, and he will not ask any less of you if you want to follow him.

The world is coming at you head-on, like a river in flood, and you must go against the current. The world is like a dense underbrush in which the Christian must look very carefully where he steps. And where should you step? In the footsteps which Christ himself laid down for you while he was passing through this world; these footsteps are his words. Today he repeats to you:

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself…”

If you follow Christ, you may be laughed at, misunderstood, and scorned, or slandered and isolated. You must be ready to lose face, and to give up the easy-going, socially accepted way of being a Christian.

But there is more:

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Whether you like it or not, suffering is a part of everyone’s life, yours as well. Sufferings, great and small, come our way every day.

Do you try to avoid them? Do you rebel against them? Do you feel like cursing them? Then you are not a Christian.

A Christian loves the cross; he or she loves every suffering, even amidst tears, knowing that suffering has value. God has innumerable ways by which he could have saved humankind. When he chose to use suffering, he had a reason.

But remember — after he carried the cross and was crucified, Jesus rose from the dead.

Resurrection is also your destiny if, instead of despising the sufferings that come with living a consistent Christian life, and the other sufferings that each day brings with it, you accept them with love. Doing so, you will realize that even here on earth the cross is a way that leads to a joy you have never before experienced. You will begin to grow spiritually, and the kingdom of God will become firmly established in you. Little by little, the world around you will fade away before your eyes, and it will seem to be made of cardboard. And you will no longer envy anyone.

Then you will be able to call yourself a follower of Christ.

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

And like Christ whom you have followed, you will be light and love for the countless numbers of people suffering in today’s world.