
To “take up the cross and follow” Jesus means first of all to take up the cross of all the evil, the sin and injustice in the world; to take it up by recognizing it: seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling it; to take it into one’s heart, to be afflicted by it, to burn with a desire to right what is wrong—and then to take up the cross of trying, by every means consistent with love, to change things, to transform society and renew the world. But included in taking up the cross this way, implicit in the dedication of oneself to renewing the world as a follower of Jesus Christ, is the knowledge that those who carry this cross have to be willing to die on it rather than kill—and to offer their lives in love for those who torture and kill them.
NO POWER BUT LOVE
Rev. David Knight, PhD (Moral Theology, Catholic University), 60 years a Catholic priest, author of forty books on Catholic Faith and teaching. For further biographical information see, https://cdom.org/father-david-buell-maria-knight-obituary/
www.emmanuelcharlesmccarthy.org
God is pleased with nothing but love.
One act of pure love is more precious in the eyes of God
and of the soul, and more profitable to the Church,
than all the good works together,
though it may seem as nothing.”
– St. John of the Cross