If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself

Jesus says these words to his disciples after Peter makes confession that he is the Messiah and after predicting his passion, death, and resurrection for the first time. Jesus wants that if they really want to journey with him to the end, they must be ready to deny themselves. They should not be submitting to their whims and caprices which oftentimes cause troubles and conflicts.

Jesus has been making miracles, but time is coming when he will finally offer his sublime sacrifice in obedience to the Father. He knows that his presence in Jerusalem will cause disturbances, not because he is a troublemaker, but because he will be challenging the authorities in the Temple and the experts of the Law.

Jesus will simply be tagged as a misfit and misguided, and also all those who follow him.

The Lenten season demands our conversion, that we forego our little comforts and have more time journeying with Jesus spiritually through prolonged prayer and more intense charity work, and less partying and food intake.

First Reading • Dt 30:15-20

Moses said to the people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.

If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.

I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.

For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land that the Lord swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Gospel • Luke 9:22-25

Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”