Deny yourself, Take up your cross, and Follow ME

As Jesus moved from the ministry of teaching and miracles to the preparation for his passion, he unveiled to his followers in a pithy saying the very heart of discipleship. "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me." During the season of Lent as we seek the renewal and deepening of our union with Christ, we would do well to ponder continuously the three parts of this simple but profound saying.

Each part of the Lord's word calls us to a deeper interior union with him, but in a different way. The command, "deny yourself," calls us to put off the "false self" that we construct in our surrender to sin. Our old self has truly been crucified with Christ, so that Jesus may reign in our hearts. "Deny yourself" means to put off every attitude and temptation whereby we would allow this self-centered "ego" to dominate our hearts and minds. "Deny yourself" also means consciously "putting on" the new man or woman who is created in the image of Christ the Son of God.

Jesus' command, "take up your cross," calls us to a deeper union with him through knowing and fulfilling the will of God for our particular life. As Christ knew and obeyed the Father's will that he give himself for the salvation of the world, he took up and embraced the cross that came to him in the fulfillment of this will of God. We, too, are called by God to give ourselves in love to Him and others in some particular way. As we obey this call, we will face challenges and suffering that come to us precisely as we strive to fulfill God's will. In and with Jesus, we are called to take up and embrace these crosses.

The third part of the Lord's command, "follow me," calls us to enter into his abiding and life-giving union with the Father. Like the first disciples, we must gaze upon Jesus each day and contemplate the blessing at the heart of who he is—his immense openness to the Father's love, and his own reciprocal and radical love of the Father. The word, "follow me," is an invitation for us to discover, embrace and abide in this abyss of life, love, goodness and beauty that eternally unites the Father and the Son. The source and summit, the beginning and the end, of this grace of following and imitating Jesus Christ is nothing else than experiencing his own abiding life of prayer with the Father.

Father Gerard Beigel is a professor at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, Colorado, and writes regularly for The California Mission.