Take up Your CrossJune 29, 2026

This Sunday’s Gospel has Jesus telling his apostles to take up their crosses and follow him, losing their life for his sake to find it.

So often we equate taking up our cross with patiently enduring the sufferings and difficulties life offers: diseases, aches and pains, failed undertakings, the barbs and irritations that come with daily living, our own shortcomings as imperfect human beings.

I do not object to these things being called “crosses.” These are the crosses we can choose to bear patiently or not. However, they aren’t the crosses we choose to take up. They already exist, and we can either bear them or rebel against them.

I think there is a different kind of cross that Jesus means when he speaks of the cross we take up in following him. These are the crosses we choose when we elect to support or defend the immigrant, the unhoused person, the person of color or with disabilities, when such support is not popular or countercultural. When we stand against injustice and cruelty, we face the cross of the opposition from others, especially those we love who do not support us or even get angry with us. When Jesus showed compassion to the sinners or to women, when he put love of others above obedience to law, when he challenged the religious and political authorities of his time, he was faced with a cross. If we follow him, we will experience the same.

Whatever the cross we take up, we know that we follow Jesus who leads us through death to a new life. The end of our journey with our crosses isn’t Calvary; it’s Resurrection.

Sister Elaine Berkopec