The Resurrection recapitulates the story of Divine Love. It is the story of loving surprise and surprise in love. In today’s gospel, we learn from the most openhearted and passionate and marginalized how to search and receive, how to open our hearts and lives to love.
The Gospel focuses us on a fundamental aspect of Christian life—making choices.
Jesus sets before would-be-disciples a daunting choice: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Embrace of the cross leads to life, attempts to avoid it end in death. Following Jesus means to go the distance, walk the entire ‘way,’ and walk it each day. This calls for unflinching self-scrutiny, reorienting our desires, re-scaling our values, re- centering our hopes, and embodying new habits and practices.