Gospel: Matthew 16: 24-28
The greatest failure of modern Christianity is its insistence that it is all about us. We have made Christianity into a self-interested pursuit of our own interests - our own salvation, the storing up of merit, and the equation of material success with divine favor. The preoccupation with institutional power and self-interest has led to the financial and sexual scandals of the modern church, not to mention the immense hypocrisy it shows to the world.
Today's Gospel portion and the witness of the ancient church speaks of disinterested love as the foundation of Christian faith. God is love and first loved us. God has no needs and gains nothing from our existence. It is a free act of love that God created and redeemed us at all, and it is this love to which we are called in our lives. To accept the Christian ministry is not to receive dignities and airs; it is to accept the great burden of the cross in serving God's people, in taking their needs as one's own.
As modern Christians enter the political arena to press for their self-interests and power, further contributing to secularism and the loss of religion, it is well for others to take a different road, the way of the Lord Jesus - the way of selfless love and service to others; the way of healing, deliverance, and nourishment; the way of the cross.
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