Take Up Your Cross: Walking with Jesus through Holy Week, Easter and Beyond (April 6, 2025)
Many of us come from different walks of life, with different circumstances and struggles. Some of us are here as parents, juggling family life, work, and everything else that comes with raising children. Others are here as folks who have been walking with the Lord for years, and many of us are also still trying to figure things out. Wherever you are in your faith journey, know that extraordinary things, and that, in the cross, God has something beautiful for each of us to experience, especially during this Holy Week.
1. The Call to Carry Our Cross with Jesus:
The cross is central to our lives as Catholics. We not only look upon the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with regularity, and appreciate His sacrifice and worship Him (if for nothing else) than for the deep love He showed us upon the cross, but Jesus calls each one of us to carry our own cross. This can sound heavy, daunting even, but it is crucial to receive what Jesus’ call to carrying our cross entails.
In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 16:24-25)
We hear this all the time, and may think, ‘OK Jesus, yeah, I have to deny myself, right, right, right, OK. Yeah, thanks. I deny myself pretty well, what else?’ Hmm… no, I don’t think we are receiving what Jesus is trying to tell us quite yet. When Jesus says, ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny Himself,’ He is using the Greek word ἀπαρνέομαι (ha-par-neh-o-mi), which has a very significant connotation. In English, this can mean deny, but perhaps more appropriately, it means renounce and disown. Jesus is saying that, if we want to be His disciples, we are called to a much more significant sacrifice than what many of us are comfortable with. Jesus is saying we must renounce our ownership over ourselves, and choose to disown our autonomy. This is radical, even for the most radical among us. It means we follow Jesus unreservedly, even when it hurts, even if it means totally losing ourselves.
Jesus isn’t advocating that we take the easy road. As we begin to consider how we might be able to live as true disciples of Jesus who actively choose to renounce, detach from, and even disown our very selves in favor of taking up our crosses, we have to consider the call to love that Jesus gives us.
The real love of the Lord is not a simple sentimentality, or a happy feeling. In the New Testament, Jesus almost exclusively talks about ‘Agape Love.’ ‘Agape’ is the ancient Koine Greek word used by Jesus whenever He talks about love, and it speaks to the self-giving, self-sacrificial love that drew Jesus to the cross for love of the world. It is a divine, heavenly love that St. Paul is talks about in his letter to the Corinthian Church.
In 1st Corinthians 12:31-13:8, St. Paul talks about the Agape love of Jesus. This Agape Love…
Is Patient
Is Kind
Is Not inflated
Is Not rude
Does Not seek its own interests
Is Not quick tempered
Does Not brood over injury
Rejoices with the truth
Bears all things
Believes all things
Hopes all things
Endures all things
Is Never Failing
These are all lovely and cute sounding, until you have to actually live them. Each of these characteristics is a sacrifice. In fact, taken together, we begin to realize that the level of self-giving sacrifice that Jesus calls us to is massive, even impossible. And in actuality, it is impossible in ourselves. If we are to live out the call to really take up our crosses, we need the grace of God. We have to offer ourselves to the fountainhead of Divine Love: the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pouring fourth from the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is the fullness of Divine Love, total self gift, immeasurable sacrifice, unfathomable peace, unrelenting joy, and immeasurable charity.
When we go to Jesus, and unite our hearts with His Most Sacred Heart, we no longer simply operate in our own power or our own ability to love. Rather, through our union with Jesus, the Lord fills us with His love to the brim and to overflowing. And in the overflow of His love for you, that is where your ability to give of yourself, to detach from yourself, disown yourself, and take up your cross really arises.
Many of us may hear this calling to sacrificial love and think, “Dude, I’m just trying to get through the week. I don’t have what it takes to live this kind of crazy life.” Here’s the thing though, many of us in the Church have already begun to truly engage in this life of love without even being especially aware of it.
In our busy lives, many of us carry burdens—physical, emotional, and spiritual. These crosses can come in many forms: the challenges of marriage, the stresses of work, the responsibilities of parenting…
I remember once when I was a kid, I think I was probably 5 years old, and my family went to the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant, I’m pretty sure it was McDonald’s. I was sitting in the back seat of my family’s Ford Taurus, which is a 4-door sedan, and in the back seat there was one of those fold down arm-rests in the middle. I very clearly remember being all excited for the burger I was getting because I was hungry. I took a big bite, and in that bite all I got was bread and bunch of mustard. I was awful! So, I pulled down the armrest, threw whole sandwich into that space where the armrest came down from, and then smooshed the armrest back in place. God bless my parents. But this is the kind of thing parents have to deal with, all the time. This is a cross that often seems like it produces no fruit and is just an utterly thankless mess, but that’s actually not true. The Lord is working in the midst of the messes of life, and He is forming us in them as we take up our crosses big and small. Jesus doesn’t leave us alone in with our crosses. Whether the cross is a life-changing event, or just an unforeseen frustration, Jesus invites us to unite our crosses with His, He invites us to unite our hearts with His Most Sacred Heart.
Think of Jesus carrying His cross to the top of Golgotha. He was weighed down, but He was not defeated. Jesus carried His cross with love, and He did it for us. When we carry our crosses, we do not need to do so in isolation. In fact, if we do, eventually we will be crushed beneath its weight. However, when we carry our crosses in union with the Lord, He walks with us, strengthens us, and gives us the grace we need love as Jesus loves, even if we have crazy ridiculous little kids.
2. The Invitation to Walk with Jesus:
As we approach Holy Week, we are invited to walk with Jesus and be united with Jesus in a special way. Holy Week is not a mere remembrance of events that happened 2,000 years ago. This is an invitation to step into the mystery of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and to walk with Him through it.
This is where I want to encourage you, especially those of you who may not be attending Mass all the time: make this Holy Week a time of deep reflection and participation.
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, where we celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It’s a joyful celebration, but it quickly turns toward the Passion of Christ. We move from the cheers of "Hosanna" to the cries of "Crucify Him." But as we walk through the liturgies of Holy Week—from Holy Thursday’s Last Supper, to Good Friday’s Passion, and to the glorious Easter Vigil—we are not just looking back in history. We are participating in the reality of what God has done and is doing for us.
The Mass is the place where we encounter the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus in a profound and real way, and the liturgies of Holy Week allow us to enter into these realities in a new manner that can draw us deeper into Jesus’ Most Sacred Heart.
You might be thinking, “Father, I’m so busy with family life, with work, and with everything else. I don’t know if I can make it to all the Masses and services this week.” I understand that. But what if, this year, you committed anyway to make a special effort to participate more fully? The Church gives us these liturgies to draw us closer to Christ. They are not burdens, but blessings. They are moments where we encounter the depth of God's love for us, where we are invited to bring our crosses to the altar and be renewed by His grace.
This is especially important for those of us with young ones. Everything you do is not only a lesson, but will be magnified by our culture in a negative way. When we choose stay away from the blessings of the Lord, our culture will say that none of it is necessary (or even good) at any level. I know when I was a kid, my parents didn’t take me or my brother to Church, except for a small handful of times to attend weddings and funerals. The amount of spiritual damage that does to a kid is very serious. I love my parents deeply, but whenever we have responsibility over others we want to bless them and draw them closer to the Lord, not allow the culture to tear us away from Him. My family never intentionally drew me closer to Jesus, and I had to do a ton of work on my own when I was an adult, which was extremely difficult and confusing as I wrestled with the lies of a broken world. As we move into and through Holy Week, let’s use this as a time of blessing where we may be formed in Jesus wondrous love, formed by His victory over sin and death through the cross, and formed in the power of His resurrection. Through our time of formation in Holy Week, we can all gain a deeper understanding that neither the cross of Jesus, nor our own crosses, are things to be afraid of, but, rather, are that which leads to the resurrection.
3. Living the Resurrected Life:
Holy Week is not just about walking with Jesus to His suffering and death. It is, above all, about the resurrection. On Easter Sunday, we celebrate the victory of Christ over death and sin. This is the very heart of our faith: Christ is risen!
But here’s the key—this victory is not just a past event. It is meant to transform our lives here and now. When we walk with Jesus through His suffering and death, we are united with Him in such a way that we, too, can experience the power of His resurrection in our lives. This is the power of the Holy Spirit.
The resurrection is not just a future hope; it is a present reality. As Christians, the Spirit of the risen Christ dwells in us. That means that we are called to live as people who are alive in Christ. This is not an easy life, and it doesn’t mean everything will always go smoothly. But it does mean that we are given the strength and grace to overcome our difficulties. Jesus’ resurrection enables us to live as resurrected people of hope, joy, and peace, even in the midst of our struggles.
As we consider how we might engage in our crosses without fear or apprehension, it is good to consider the lives of great heroes of the faith who serve as great examples for us. Some of us may have heard about a fellow by the name of Maximilian Kolbe. He was born on January 8, 1894, in Poland, to a poor, devout Catholic family.
His early years were marked by deep devotion to prayer and study, and he soon displayed extraordinary intellectual talents. He earned a doctorate in theology in Rome, where he developed a profound devotion to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding the Militia Immaculatae (Army of the Immaculate), a movement dedicated to promoting Marian devotion and the spreading of the Gospel.
He also undertook missionary work in Japan in the 1930s, where he continued his evangelizing efforts. However, despite his success, Kolbe's life of peace and religious devotion was soon to be upended by the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939.
During the German occupation of Poland, Kolbe was arrested by the Gestapo in February 1941. After his release, he continued his work, but he was arrested again in May 1941 and sent to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was given the number 16670.
In Auschwitz, Kolbe’s courage and deep faith were immediately evident. He provided spiritual care to his fellow prisoners, offering them hope and comfort in the face of unspeakable suffering. He often celebrated clandestine Masses and heard confessions, doing whatever he could to maintain the prisoners' dignity and faith amidst the horrors of the camp.
Kolbe’s most self-giving act of love occurred in August 1941. A prisoner had escaped from the camp, and in retaliation, the Nazis selected ten men to be executed by starvation in a bunker. One of the men chosen was a family man, who begged for mercy, crying out for his wife and children. In an extraordinary act of compassion, Kolbe volunteered to take the man’s place. The Nazis, surprised by this self-sacrificial act, agreed to the exchange.
Kolbe was led to the starvation bunker, where he and the other nine prisoners were left to die. Over the next two weeks, Kolbe led the men in prayer and offered them comfort, even singing hymns in the dark and silent cell. Finally, after the others had died, Kolbe was executed with a lethal injection of poison on August 14, 1941.
Heroism and Legacy
Kolbe’s self-giving and sacrificial act of taking the place of another man was an ultimate expression of Christ’s sacrificial love. Kolbe laid down his life for a fellow human being, offering his own life to save another—an impossible act of love that was only possible because of the resurrected power of Christ which coursed through His veins. Kolbe’s willingness to endure suffering and death for the sake of another is a model of Christian charity and selflessness.
Maximilian Kolbe was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982. He is recognized as a martyr of charity and love, having died for the love of another person. St. Maximilian Kolbe’s life and martyrdom exemplify the very essence of "taking up one’s cross and following Jesus." His personal sacrifices, especially his heroic act in Auschwitz, make him a saint who showed the world that true greatness lies in self-giving love.
Saint Maximillian Kolbe is not special in all of this though. He is just a normal man who lived the resurrected life, and was infused with the graces of the Holy Spirit.
For the parents out there, it means that even when you feel exhausted or overwhelmed, you can tap into the power of the Holy Spirit to be the mother or father you are called to be. For others, it means facing all your challenges with the confidence that, in Christ, you can endure and even thrive. The resurrection gives us the power to carry our crosses, knowing that we do not carry them alone.
4. Encouragement for the Journey:
I want to leave you with a few practical thoughts as we move through Holy Week:
Make Time for Prayer: Open your heart to God and ask Him to help you carry your cross. Invite the Holy Spirit to renew your faith.
Participate in the Liturgies: This is a powerful way to enter into the mystery of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. If you can, attend the Masses of Holy Week, especially Holy Thursday, Good Friday and, of course, Easter. If you have children, bring them along. Let them see you participating in these sacred moments.
Reflect on the Cross and Resurrection: Take some time during this week to reflect on what the cross means in your life. Ask yourself and members of your family how Jesus is inviting you all to walk with Him, and how He is calling you to live the resurrected life.
Reach Out to Others: The resurrection is not just for us—it’s for the whole world. Reach out to someone who may be struggling. Offer a word of encouragement, and invite them to join you in the journey of faith.
As we move through Holy Week, let us offer our hearts to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and choose to actively walk with Him. Let us take up our crosses, knowing that Christ walks with us. Let us look forward with hope to the resurrection, which gives us the strength to live as people of joy, peace, and love. May the power of the Holy Spirit fill us and renew us during this sacred time.
In carrying our crosses with Jesus, may we come to experience more fully the glory of the resurrection and the new life He offers us. God bless you all.