As Christians we all have an obligation to live “in” this world, but at the same time to not be “of” this world – to keep our sights on the ways of God, to help God bring his kingdom to earth, and to resist those ways of the world that are contrary to God’s ways and the establishment of his kingdom.
In his letter to the Christian community in Rome (Romans 12:1-2) Saint Paul speaks of this obligation -instructing us to not conform ourselves to this world but instead to allow ourselves to be transformed by God’s word and Spirit so that we can do God’s will. One take away from Paul’s message is that we need to resist the prevailing “wisdom” put forth by today’s culture – a wisdom that says that we need to look out for our own self interests even at the expense of others, that we need to pursue wealth, power, and prestige at all costs. Essentially Paul tells us that our daily lives should conform, not to our culture, not to the ways of our world, but to God’s will.
And just what is God’s will. Jesus gives us a glimpse in today’s gospel (Matt 16: 21-27) telling his disciples “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”. Jesus asks us to “deny ourselves” – to put others before ourselves, to deny our own selfish interests, to be compassionate and forgiving towards others, to humble ourselves and bury our pride when necessary to heal broken relationships. Jesus asks us to “take up our cross” – to accept and even embrace the hardships and sufferings in this life, and to do this with trust in God and hope for the future. To “deny ourselves”, to “take up our cross”, to be “in” the world but not “of” the world – this is what Jesus means when he tells us to “follow” him.
Many of us think the challenge of discipleship is greater now than ever before but, in reality, it’s always been difficult to be a Christian and has at times been rather more perilous to be one than it is (for most) today. Of course, when we think of our Christian brothers and sisters who are even today in harm’s way, it should put our own relatively easy ‘yokes’ in perspective. It’s sometimes hard to imagine that people will die today–this very day–for no other reason than that they believe precisely what we believe. For them, non-conformity is not just holy but fatal. May we daily remember them and their powerful, if unseen, witness.