By: Mauro Russo
Editor’s Note: Articles originally published on Pane Vivo.
A Reflection on Matthew 16:21-27
Taking up one’s cross and following Christ: this phrase from Matthew 16:24 is one we all know. But there is something that comes before it in the text that we often skip past too quickly. Something that struck me differently this time.
“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Mt 16:21).
Jesus admits his burden. Openly. In front of his own. He says it, does not hide it, does not pretend. He, the Messiah, the one on whom everyone has placed the hopes of a revolution, says: I will suffer. I will be arrested. I will die.
How hard it is to do something like that.
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