Following Christ to the Cross

As we begin the Easter Triduum, remembering Our Lord and His ascent of Calvary, it might be difficult for us to discern how Jesus is asking us to follow Him to the Cross.

Pope Francis gave us some guidance on this yesterday, in his first General Audience address:

Living Holy Week means increasingly entering into God's logic, the logic of the Cross, which is not first of all that of pain and death, but of love and of self-giving that brings life. It means entering into the logic of the Gospel. Following, accompanying Christ, remaining with Him requires a "stepping outside.” Stepping outside of ourselves, of a tired and routine way of living the faith, of the temptation to withdraw into pre-established patterns that end up closing our horizon to the creative action of God. God stepped outside of Himself to come among us, He pitched His tent among us to bring the mercy of God that saves and gives hope. Even if we want to follow Him and stay with Him, we must not be content to remain in the enclosure of the ninety-nine sheep, we have to "step outside," to search for the lost sheep together with Him, the one furthest away. Remember well: stepping outside of ourselves, like Jesus, like God has stepped outside of Himself in Jesus and Jesus stepped outside of Himself for all of us.

Pope Francis, the prime example of someone who practices what he preaches, will “step outside” of himself today, when he celebrates Holy Thursday Mass in Rome’s juvenile prison. Blessed John Paul II did the same in his travels and in his very public struggle with sickness and old age.

How can we step outside of our computers, our homes, or our workplaces? How can we step outside of ourselves? Perhaps we can meditate on this as we gratefully remember the way Our Lord did it for us, in His Passion and His death.