Following Christ Isn’t Easy, But Its Worth It
(By Fr Dexter Brereton, CSSp ThM STL)
A few days ago, someone quoted me a traditional Trinidadian saying: “When you do good, good will follow you”. Other cultures have other sayings with a similar logic. We all know for example: “you sow what you reap”. Such sayings are often the staple diet of religious people who pass them on to their children wishing to impress upon them the fact that their moral actions matter. If they do good in life they will reap the rewards and if they do evil then they will be punished. I suppose if life were ALWAYS like that, it would be lot easier to follow Jesus. If we lived in a universe where the wicked are always punished and the good rewarded – in this life – it would be a lot easier for people to have faith, and to choose good.
My life experience tells me that these sayings sometimes fall short. The simple fact is, when you do good, good does not always follow you, and people do not always reap what they sow. Ask this to the husband who has been absolutely faithful to his wife for years and is rewarded on his silver anniversary of marriage with the news that his spouse is having an affair. Ask the worker who for thirty years is faithful to the same company, then one day, finds himself or herself laid off with very little to show for it. Ask the young woman who loses the husband she loves dearly and with whom she lives an exemplary life to cancer at the age of 45, in his prime, leaving her with two children to support. In point of fact, the wicked are often successful in their plans the evil die happy and the good die young, so people do not always reap the reward of their actions. Grievous suffering and injustice befall the innocent and the not so innocent alike.
These sayings came to mind since their logic runs counter to what Jesus tells us. The Word of God presents us with a portrait of a Messiah or Christ, who we are invited to follow but who in many ways is not attractive since he is not a poster-child for heavenly reward. Let us listen to the words of Jesus: If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it, but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
The question in life is not what kind of life shall I follow so as to receive the greatest reward? The real question is quite simply WHAT KIND OF LIFE DO I CHOOSE TO LIVE, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT IT IS PROFITABLE TO ME? The followers of Jesus do good because it is good, not because it is profitable for them and certainly not because it buys them a life that is problem-free. For us, our reward is not here, but our reward is with God, it is with the Father.
The Christian commitment, does not buy us immunity from suffering. We still have to face like others, the reality of suffering and injustice in life. What makes us different however, is that as Christians we believe that our reward is with God, with the Father. For us Christians, the cross is the way to the Fathers house, the way up is the way down. A dedicated life, following the example of Jesus Christ, is also a life that is filled with the risk of persecution and misunderstanding. To refuse the risk of the cross, is to do like Peter who thinks not like God’s way but man’s.
