Peace is Found in Following the Lord!
Jesus helps us today with our Gospel portion, St. Mark 8:27-35. Here we see Our Lord dealing with who He is, what will happen to Him, and what His followers must do. Let us concentrate on this last part of the text. We read,
And He called to Him the multitude with His disciples and said to them, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8: 34-35.
There are two Crosses, selves, that exist in our lives. The first Cross is the one made by the world, and the other cross comes out of being a disciple of Jesus. If we hold onto the cross of the world, we are doomed because the worldly Cross follows the evil one. It leads to enjoyment of the things of the world in a self-centered way. Whereas discipleship of Jesus’ leads to participating in Divine Love. In doing so we find life in abundance.
Choose the Jesus’ Cross, though it is often one of suffering, it is the one way to peace.
Choosing this cross will change the way the world is if we carry our Jesus’ Cross faithfully. As the old children’s hymn states,
“The one way to peace is the Power of the Cross.”
Choose peace!
Pax. The Hermit of Peace.
Hermitage of Peace 