It’s a serious call.
Welcome to Catholic Byte 60 Seconds, where 2,000 years of faith and tradition are explained one minute at a time. This is Father Conrad Murphy of the Archdiocese of Washington, and today I’m going to talk about carrying our cross.
We all remember from the Gospel when Jesus tells us that we must take up our cross and follow Him. But what does that actually mean? What image is He conveying? When a condemned man was sent to be crucified, he had the crossbar tied to his arms behind his back, and then he had to walk through a crowd of citizens who would jeer at him, spit on him, and perhaps even strike him, throwing all sorts of abuse his way.
So, when Jesus calls us to pick up our cross, it doesn’t just mean dying for the faith. It means enduring all this ridicule and suffering for His sake. That’s really hard for us to do. How often do we hesitate to talk about Jesus because we’re worried people will make fun of us or think we’re strange? But it’s worth it because the whole point of the cross is that it shows transformative and great love.
That’s the end of my 60 seconds. We’ll catch you next time on Catholic Byte 60 Seconds.
