HYMN FOR PENTECOST 14 Take up thy Cross, the Savior said

Christ carrying his cross. Bosch Text: Charles W. Everest (1814-1877). Tune: Breslau or Quebec by Henry Baker (1835-1910) 1. "Take up thy cross," the Savior said, "if thou wouldst my disciple be; deny thyself, the world forsake, and humbly follow after Me." 2 Take up thy cross, let not its weight fill thy weak spirit with alarm; His strength shall bear thy spirit up, and brace thy heart, and nerve thine arm. 3 Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame, nor let thy foolish pride rebel; thy Lord for thee the cross endured, to save thy soul from death and hell. 4 Take up thy cross, and follow Christ, nor think till death to lay it down; for only they who bear the cross may hope to wear the glorious crown. REFLECTION Mother Teresa To take up one’s cross and follow him, as Jesus says we must do to find life, is something we vaguely understand as self-denial and suffering, but maybe cannot be very specific about. Some people hear it as being resigned to the weight our sin and shame have brought us, and bearing them now, not to our ruination, but our salvation because now we are following the Savior, not our own destruction. Others might think of it as choosing, actively, to suffer for a cause one has chosen, like Mother Teresa, for example, embracing the poorest of the poor in Calcutta for the sake of her Lord. Either way to take up one’s cross is to give up one’s own pride in order to follow a greater Lord. In leaving ourselves behind, we will find life, Jesus promises us, as the hymn has it, a “glorious crown.” This way is a mystery and scandal to the world. People talk of finding themselves, of obeying their own selves, which really means what the faith calls idolatry And what most secular people today do not quite realize is that idols are hard taskmasters, even if we worship ourselves. Happiness comes as a result of other virtues not as a goal in itself. Idols demand absolute obedience and their rewards are the desecration of our relationships and society that lead to death. The seven deadly sins are deadly not simply because they deny the command of God, but because God’s commands are for our own flourishing. He made us and knows what will fill us with joy and the satisfaction of a life well lived. Way to Calvary. Andrea di Bartolo, There is a hunger in our world today for meaning, connection to greater purpose and a larger world. Jesus is telling us here that the good life comes when we submit to the necessities of life and serve our neighbor. Both my grandmothers died in childbirth. The aunts, uncles, fostermothers and fathers who cared for my mother and father because of familial obligations or their baptismal sponsorship gave up some of their dreams for self-fulfillment to care for my parents. They submitted to the duties they accepted as necessary for the welfare of my parents. It made a huge difference to me and my siblings and many others. As one who has lived near the artistic world my whole life, I know the stories of many artists who in following the demands of their talents, put them first, refusing to submit to the needs of their spouses, their children or their communal responsibilities. Unfortunately, that has become the model for many, not just artists, today. One’s own life matters more than that of others. Many accept it as the irresistable way of the world. Christans should not. Jesus shows us the better way in this passage. Not only are the eternal rewards glorious, but so are the rewards in the current day. Tolstoy’s great novel Anna Karinina gives us a perfect picture of the wrath and destruction passion wreaks on everyone around Anna, while also showing us in the good life of a relative, Kostya Levin. He is married to a sister of Anna's brother's wife, and after becoming a believer discovers the genial joys of faithfulness and responsibility to family and God. HYMN INFO Charles Everest Charles William Everist was born in Windsor, Connecticut. He graduated from Trinity College in Hartford CT and became a priest in the Episcopal church in 1842 serving as rector in Hampden CT almost until the end of his life. This, his most well-known hymn, was first published in the hymn collection Following Jesus. The hymn in the version we have here received recognition and fame when it was included in the greatest hymnal of the age, Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861. Breslau is a popular tune for this hymn. Scholars think it comes from the Lochamer Gesangbuch, 1450?, in included in the Hymnodus Sacer, Leipzig (1625). Felix Mendelssohn is said to have arranged it. LINKS OCP https://youtu.be/eFHdtVFtm64?si=T2dxGpA18D19xOn8 Chet Valley Hymns and Song (Breslau) https://youtu.be/OS3q4uTEAik?si=eHDQ0QJJpuRhuNVc United Church of Hyde Park https://youtu.be/JeqbiyrGvAE?si=cFnMV9uTpgrKh5eO It is a good time to order this series of poems on the life of Jesus. A sonnet for every day including leap year, it shows how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecies and meditates on who he is and what he did using the traditional texts from what was known as The Harmony, an effort to tell the life of Jesus in one account. Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fortress Press and others.